In brief
A U.S. mandate suspending PERM labor certification for eight tech giants—including Microsoft, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services—has thrown Indian tech workers, who rely on this pathway for U.S. green cards, into uncertainty. While companies report a modest impact on business, the move has amplified fears of anti‑Asian sentiment and forced many to reconsider careers abroad. Alternative green‑card routes exist, but they require exceptional achievements or substantial investment and may also face future restrictions. The policy signals a tightening immigration climate that could reshape how Indian talent is recruited and retained in the United States.
For millions of Indians, career ambition followed a familiar trajectory: an engineering degree, a U.S. tech‑services contract, successive visa renewals and finally a green card that marked permanent residence.
That script is disrupted by a new U.S. immigration policy announced on 15 October 2026. The Trump administration has suspended the Permanent Labor Certification Program—known as PERM—within eight major tech firms, halting new and pending green‑card applications that normally flow through this route.
The five firms most affected are Microsoft, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and HCL Technologies, all of which employed a large share of Indians on H‑1B visas. PERM‑linked jobs now represent a shrinking slice of their U.S. payrolls: Wipro reports that more than 80% of its U.S. workforce is locally hired, and TCS filed only two PERM applications in 2025‑26 versus 513 the year before.
<strong style='font-weight:bold;'>Human‑level impact</strong> is stark. A senior executive at one of the firms told the BBC that “a good number of people we know are stuck in a space where they have spent years in the U.S. but their green‑card application hasn’t moved”, creating a dilemma between staying in the country and returning to India. The animus surrounding the policy is compounded by increased anti‑South‑Asian online hate since the 2024 U.S. election, with the term “foreign indentured servants” used by Vice President JD Vance—later described as “imperfect” rhetoric by the U.S. administration.
<strong style='font-weight:bold;'>Alternative paths</strong> exist: exceptional talent categories that bypass PERM, or the EB‑5 investor route requiring a minimum $800,000 investment. However, with virtually 1 million Indian nationals waiting for employment‑based green cards as of December 2025 and projected wait times ranging from five to 179 years, many find these options impractical.
The PERM suspension may prompt some firms to shift work offshore, fueling a potential shift of the U.S. tech talent pipeline back to India. Yet, the U.S. appetite for highly skilled Indian engineers remains strong, suggesting that while the pathway may change, the destination might not. For now, Indian professionals must navigate a tightening immigration landscape while pondering whether to stay, relocate, or pursue alternate residency routes.
