The United States Department of Labor has announced an immediate freeze barring eight major technology employers—Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro, HCLTech, Cognizant, Capgemini, Microsoft, and Adobe—from participating in the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) program. Under the directive, the department will neither accept new PERM applications nor continue processing pending applications tied to these companies while federal reviews into labor practices remain active. Because Indian nationals represent the vast majority of skilled technology workers sponsored under employment-based immigrant categories, the move has triggered widespread anxiety across the expatriate software community.

What the PERM Program Actually Does

To understand the consequences of the suspension, it is essential to distinguish between a temporary work visa and permanent residency. The PERM program is not the H-1B visa; rather, it is the mandatory foundational first step required for an employer to sponsor a foreign professional for an employment-based Green Card under the EB-2 (advanced degree) and EB-3 (skilled worker) categories. During the PERM process, an employer must test the local labor market and prove to the US government that there are no qualified, willing, and available American workers for that specific position, and that hiring a foreign national will not adversely depress domestic wage rates. Once the Department of Labor approves a PERM labor certification, the employer can proceed to step two by filing an I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

The Direct Impact on Indian Workers with Approved I-140 Petitions

For Indian professionals who already have an approved Form I-140 from USCIS, the PERM freeze does not revoke their status. An approved I-140 locks in an applicant’s priority date and legally permits them to secure indefinite three-year extensions on their H-1B work visas beyond the standard statutory six-year limit under the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act (AC21). Furthermore, spouses holding H-4 visas retain their eligibility to work via H-4 Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) as long as the primary applicant’s approved I-140 remains valid. Consequently, senior Indian professionals who have already navigated the labor certification stage and are simply waiting out the decades-long Green Card backlog will not face an immediate disruption to their legal status or right to work.

High Vulnerability for Workers Approaching the 6-Year H-1B Ceiling

The severe fallout of this suspension falls directly on employees in the early-to-mid stages of their immigration timeline, particularly those without an approved I-140 who are approaching their sixth year on an H-1B visa. Immigration law allows a foreign worker to extend an H-1B visa past the six-year cap only if a PERM application or I-140 petition was filed at least 365 days before the six-year mark, or if the I-140 is already approved. With new filings blocked and pending PERM cases halted, workers at these eight companies who were counting on timely certification to trigger visa extensions face the real threat of exhausting their allowable H-1B stay. Without an alternative path, affected employees may be forced to leave the United States, relocate to nearshore hubs such as Canada, transfer to offshore centers in India, or change their visa classification.

The Spillover Effect: Job Mobility, Lateral Hiring, and Company Responses

The suspension also significantly complicates internal role changes and lateral career mobility. Under US regulations, promoting an employee or altering their job location and duties substantially often requires an amended or brand-new PERM filing to preserve the permanent residency pathway; this avenue is now temporarily closed at the eight affected firms. At the same time, Indian IT service majors have emphasized that their direct dependency on annual PERM filings has dropped substantially over recent years as they shifted focus to hiring local American talent and expanding domestic campuses. Nonetheless, affected professionals stuck in administrative limbo are actively exploring alternative immigration avenues—such as porting their H-1B visa to an employer outside the suspended group, qualifying for self-petitioned EB-1A or EB-2 National Interest Waiver (NIW) categories that bypass the employer-driven PERM requirement, or evaluating inter-company L-1 transfers to overseas offices.