The US PERM suspension initially appeared to threaten a central route through which Indian technology companies could support the long-term relocation of foreign employees. The evidence cited in the supplied report, however, points to a more limited immediate disruption: major Indian IT firms have already sharply reduced their use of the programme while expanding local workforces, offices and delivery centres in the United States.
Infosys said in a regulatory filing that it did not anticipate a material impact from the US decision to suspend new and pending applications under the Permanent Labor Certification programme. The Bengaluru-headquartered company said it had invested in building a strong local workforce and technology and innovation hubs in the United States, and remained committed to its employees, clients and communities there.
The statement followed a US administration decision to suspend eight major technology firms from the PERM programme. The companies named included Indian IT majors Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro and HCL Technologies, as well as Capgemini, Cognizant, Microsoft and Adobe. The stated rationale was that the programme had excluded American workers from the domestic job market.
The immediate policy change matters because PERM certification is the initial requirement for employers seeking to hire foreign workers on a permanent basis in the United States. It is a key gateway to an employment-based green card. Suspending new and pending applications therefore affects the long-term immigration pathway for eligible employees, even if it does not automatically stop companies from operating, serving clients or hiring locally.
That distinction is important for understanding the likely effect on Indian IT firms. The programme’s formal significance is greater than its current operational weight for several of the companies named in the decision. The filing figures cited in the report show that PERM applications by major Indian IT employers have fallen sharply in recent years.
TCS filed two PERM applications in the US financial year 2026, compared with 513 in 2025 and 1,804 in 2024. HCL submitted 59 filings in 2026, down from 323 in 2025. Infosys recorded 87 applications in 2024, while Wipro filed 257 in 2024 and 523 in 2025. Of Wipro’s 257 applications in 2024, 169 were denied and 88 were withdrawn by the company.
These figures suggest that the suspension has arrived after a substantial reduction in the use of the green card route by Indian IT companies. The data does not establish why every company reduced its filings, and the supplied report does not provide a full explanation of the changes. It does, however, show that the policy decision is being applied to a pipeline that was already much smaller than it had been in earlier years.
Industry-level numbers reinforce that picture. Vineet Nayar, former chief executive of HCL Technologies, said in a post on X that Indian IT companies accounted for fewer than 1,400 of the 117,849 PERM certifications issued in the previous year, or less than 2 per cent. His assessment was that the direct impact could therefore be smaller than the announcement first suggested.
The number is significant not only because it measures the share of Indian IT firms in the overall programme, but also because it separates the policy’s political message from its operational reach. The US decision names large global employers and targets a route associated with foreign workers. Yet the available filing data indicates that Indian IT companies represent a small proportion of total PERM certifications and that their own participation has declined.
TCS has separately downplayed the development. The company said its PERM applications had fallen to single digits over the past two years and that the suspension was not expected to affect its client commitments or talent strategy. Its US workforce strategy, according to the statement cited in the report, is based on hiring local talent through a campus recruitment model.
TCS also said it had built a significant local workforce across 31 offices and delivery centres in the United States. It plans to hire an additional 15,000 people in the country over the next five years. That commitment illustrates how the physical and institutional footprint of technology companies is changing. Employment is increasingly being organised through local offices, delivery centres and domestic recruitment rather than relying only on the movement of employees from India.
For cities, this is the most important structural dimension of the announcement. The issue is not limited to immigration paperwork. It concerns where technology work is located, how companies staff their operations and how corporate employment is distributed across office networks. When a company expands its local workforce, its operational model becomes more closely tied to the labour markets and urban centres in which its offices and delivery centres are based.
The supplied material does not identify the 31 TCS locations or quantify the urban employment impact of the planned 15,000 hires. It also does not provide comparable local workforce numbers for Infosys, Wipro, HCL Technologies or the other companies named in the directive. What it does establish is that Infosys has invested in US technology and innovation hubs, while TCS has described local recruitment and a multi-location office network as central to its workforce strategy.
This points to a gradual shift in the institutional relationship between Indian IT companies and the US market. Earlier operating models could depend more heavily on moving employees across borders for assignments and longer-term placements. The current evidence shows companies presenting local hiring as a major part of their US strategy. The decline in PERM filings is consistent with that shift, although the supplied report does not establish whether local hiring alone caused the reduction.
The policy landscape remains divided between immigration access and employer operations. The US administration’s suspension affects applications for permanent residency, while the companies’ responses focus on business continuity, local hiring and compliance. Infosys said it welcomed the opportunity to work with the US Department of Labor and related government agencies to address queries. It also said it remained committed to complying with applicable laws and regulations.
That response signals that the companies are treating the announcement as a regulatory matter requiring engagement with government agencies, rather than as an immediate interruption to their operations. TCS similarly linked its position to client commitments and talent strategy. Neither statement, as reported, indicates that the companies expect their existing service delivery to stop.
The evidence also shows why the headline effect of a suspension can be misleading without examining the underlying pipeline. The PERM programme remains an important gateway for employment-based green cards, but the number of applications filed by individual Indian IT companies has fallen sharply from earlier levels. TCS’s decline from 1,804 applications in 2024 to two in financial year 2026 is particularly pronounced. HCL’s filings also fell from 323 to 59 over the same comparison period.
At the same time, the available data has limits. The figures are not presented on a single uniform basis for every company: some relate to US financial year 2026, while others are given for calendar years or specific years without a complete time series. The report also does not state how many employees are affected by the suspension, how long the suspension will last or whether pending applications will eventually be reopened. Those unanswered questions are central to assessing the longer-term consequences.
The immediate conclusion supported by the evidence is therefore narrower than either a crisis narrative or a dismissal of the policy. The suspension closes or restricts a pathway that remains important for eligible foreign employees, but Indian IT companies appear to have reduced their dependence on that pathway. Their public responses emphasise local workers, US offices, technology hubs and compliance, while the filing data shows a much smaller application pipeline than in previous years.
The larger urban and economic question is whether the localisation of technology employment will continue to reshape the geography of corporate work. TCS’s stated plan to hire 15,000 additional people in the United States over five years, alongside its existing network of 31 offices and delivery centres, indicates the scale at which local workforce strategies can influence business locations and employment systems. The supplied material does not show whether other companies will make similar commitments, but their responses will be important to monitor.
For now, the evidence confirms a transition rather than an immediate operational shock. Infosys expects no material impact, TCS says client commitments and talent strategy will not be affected, and the filing data shows reduced use of PERM by several Indian IT firms. The unresolved questions concern the duration of the suspension, the treatment of pending applications and the extent to which local hiring can replace the permanent-residency route for employees who would otherwise have depended on it.
