Infosys downplays impact of US PERM suspension, says Indian IT’s shift to local hiring cushions blow

Infosys Ltd., India’s second-largest IT services exporter, told stock exchanges on 11 October that the United States Department of Labor’s decision to suspend the company and seven other tech majors from filing new applications under the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) programme is "not expected to have a material impact" on its operations. The PERM programme is a mandatory first step for employers that wish to sponsor foreign employees—many of them on H-1B visas—for US green cards. In a White House press conference on 8 October, Vice-President J. D. Vance accused the suspended firms, which include Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, HCLTech, Cognizant, Microsoft, Adobe and Capgemini, of abusing the system to undercut American workers. All new and pending PERM filings from the eight companies have been frozen until further notice. Infosys said it had filed "fewer than ten" PERM applications in each of the past two fiscal years as part of a deliberate pivot toward local recruitment in the United States. Industry body Nasscom echoed the view, noting that Indian IT companies accounted for under 2 % of the 117,849 PERM certifications issued in FY 2025-26. The data suggest that most Indian professionals now use alternative routes such as the EB-1C or National Interest Waiver categories, or they convert to green cards after moving to client payrolls. Analysts at ICICI Securities and HFS Research said the immediate risk lies more in talent retention than in revenue. Indian employees whose PERM cases are on hold may choose to return home or explore opportunities in Canada, Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific region if uncertainty drags on for six to twelve months. However, since Indian vendors have already doubled down on local hiring—Infosys says Americans now make up 40 % of its US workforce—the near-term delivery impact is likely to be muted. For corporate mobility managers, the episode is a reminder to diversify destination options and to track green-card processing times more closely. Companies with Indian assignees in the United States are being advised to keep H-1B extensions ready, consider L-1B or L-1A inter-company transfers where possible, and explore Canada’s Global Talent Stream or the UK’s Global Business Mobility route as contingency plans.