The American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) of Infosys and Wipro slumped around 3% each in Thursday’s trade after US President Donald Trump’s administration suspended these firms from the Permanent Labour Certification Programme, which allows companies to apply for green cards for H-1B visa workers.
Along with these two, other domestic tech firms such as Tata and HCL Tech, as well as US-based firms with a large presence in India, including Cognizant, Capgemini, Microsoft and Adobe, were also on the list.
The announcement was made by US Labour Secretary Keith Sonderling, with Vice President JD Vance, the head of the US Anti-Fraud Task Force, by his side.
“I am hereby suspending from the Permanent Labour Certification Programme some of the largest IT outsourcing firms in the world, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini,” Sonderling said.
India’s $300 billion IT sector, which derives about 57% of its revenue from the US, has long benefited from US work visa programmes and the outsourcing of software and business services.
In recent years, tech companies have reduced their dependence on H-1B visas through local hiring and nearshoring. Around 57,000 new H-1B visas were approved for Indians last year, down 28% from FY24. Last fiscal year, Indians received about half of the total new H-1B approvals, Mint reported.
In September last year, the US raised the fee for H-1B visas to a whopping $100,000 annually for new applicants.
JD Vance accuses Microsoft of H-1B visa abuse
Vice President JD Vance accused Microsoft of abusing a programme that essentially empowers American companies to recruit foreign workers for jobs that end up undercutting American workers. Vance said Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers last year but also obtained 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards, AP reported.
In a wide-ranging announcement on Thursday, Vance and other top administration officials also called out universities over their use of J-1 visas for international students and information technology outsourcing firms.
The announcement came hours before Trump was scheduled to award the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, as part of an event at which he is granting some of the nation’s most prestigious science and technology awards to his tech billionaire allies.
Vance said the programme from which Microsoft is being suspended requires companies to advertise jobs in America before applying to the Department of Labor to demonstrate that they need to give a foreign worker a green card because of a lack of American workers.
The H-1B programme has long been a target of Trump supporters, who say the programme undercuts American workers and is rife with abuse.
Disclaimer: We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.
