Major IT Firms Suspended From US Green Card Program As Tech Stocks Slide

The American Depositary Receipts of Infosys and Wipro dropped about 3% each in Thursday's trade after the US administration suspended major technology outsourcing firms from the Permanent Labour Certification Programme. This program allows companies to apply for green cards for H-1B visa workers. US Labour Secretary Keith Sonderling announced the suspensions alongside Vice President JD Vance, who heads the US Anti-Fraud Task Force. Apart from Infosys and Wipro, the suspended list includes domestic firms Tata and HCL Tech, as well as US-based companies with large operations in India such as Cognizant, Capgemini, Microsoft, and Adobe. India's $300 billion IT sector gets about 57% of its revenue from the US and has long relied on work visa programs. Companies have reduced their dependence on H-1B visas in recent years through local hiring and nearshoring. Last year, around 57,000 new H-1B visas were approved for Indians, which is down 28% from fiscal year 2024. Indians received about half of the total new H-1B approvals last fiscal year. In September last year, the US raised the annual fee for new H-1B visa applicants to $100,000. Economic Times reported that these fresh immigration restrictions, alongside quarterly results and concerns over technology spending and AI disruption, put additional pressure on Indian IT stocks. Vice President JD Vance accused Microsoft of abusing the foreign worker program to undercut American workers, stating that Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers last year while obtaining 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards. The administration also called out universities for using J-1 visas for international students.

Context

The H-1B visa and green card programs are frequent targets of political debate in the US, with critics arguing they displace local employees. For the Indian technology industry, changes to these regulations directly affect how firms deploy engineering talent across global markets.