US govt to suspend Micrsoft, Indian IT companies from green card programme

The US government has announced it will halt fresh applications for permanent residency from foreign workers at prominent tech firms like Microsoft, Cognizant, Infosys, TCS, and HCLTech, due to widespread abuse in the process, according to media sources. US Vice President J D Vance specifically addressed Microsoft, urging the company to prioritize hiring American workers, stating, "You're a great American company, but you've got to hire great American workers."

The permanent residency route, part of the PERM (Program Electronic Review Management) process, requires employers to secure a certification from the Department of Labor that no qualified, willing, or available US worker is available for a particular job. US Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling revealed that these specific companies had collectively sought nearly 3 million foreign workers, securing over 230,000 H-1B visas and more than 100,000 permanent labor certifications since 2009.

This, Sonderling contended, equates to hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been taken away from American citizens.

Some of these companies are currently under federal investigation. Additionally, the Department of Labor found that certain employers were paying foreign workers approximately $20,000 less than US workers for comparable positions. India has traditionally been the largest recipient of H-1B visas from the US annually, but in recent years, US tech companies have been the biggest beneficiaries, surpassing Indian IT firms.

Recent US immigration policies have adversely affected the Indian technology sector, with the current administration proposing a substantial increase in H-1B visa fees and stricter regulations on the duration of unemployment allowed under this visa.