Cognizant was founded in Chennai in 1994 and now has its headquarters in Teaneck, New Jersey. Image for representation
| Photo Credit: Bijoy Ghosh
The U.S. Department of Labour has suspended Cognizant Technology Solutions’ filings under the Permanent Labour Certification (PERM) programme, a key step for employers seeking employment-based green cards for foreign workers, amid an investigation into alleged fraud.“Cognizant’s PERM filings are suspended,” U.S. Labour Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito announced on X, adding that the department was working with the White House Task Force to eliminate fraud. “Threats to American workers will NOT be tolerated,” he added.The department has not disclosed the specific allegations against Cognizant, the number of filings affected or how long the suspension will remain in force. The material released by the inspector general also does not identify any criminal charges against Cognizant.PERM is the labour-certification stage of the employment-based permanent residency process. Under the programme, the Labour Department must certify that qualified U.S. workers are not available for a position and that hiring a foreign worker will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed American workers.EIITREND CEO Pareekh Jain said a prolonged suspension could create a talent-retention risk for Cognizant if it affects employees already in the green-card queue.He said employees could consider moving to other companies if their permanent-residency process remains stalled, making it a potential medium-term issue for Cognizant.Mr. Jain said the impact could be broader if similar action is taken against other technology companies, potentially pushing the industry towards more local hiring. He also said the significance of the move was that immigration scrutiny could now extend beyond H-1B hiring to the H-1B-to-green-card pathway.He also questioned why Cognizant was the first pick, noting that although it was founded in Chennai, it is a U.S.-headquartered and Nasdaq-listed company. He said this suggested the move is intended to be less about an India-U.S. issue and more about sending a signal to the wider IT industry, although the U.S. government has not stated this as its rationale.In his Linkedin post, Piyal Gupta, CEO of Kneuralabs and a former Accenture and Cognizant executive, said the suspension was significant for the global IT industry because PERM is a critical step in the employment-based green-card process.Mr. Gupta said the development should be watched closely by Indian technology professionals who depend on employer-sponsored green cards, but cautioned against treating an investigation as proof that Cognizant committed fraud.He said the broader implication for the industry could be greater scrutiny of immigration-related compliance, including wages, recruitment practices and documentation.“The era of treating H-1B and Green Card sponsorship simply as an HR process is changing,” he said, adding that companies could face greater scrutiny around compliance.The development came a day after Cognizant announced that it planned to hire 1,500 US college graduates and scale its combined Frontier Certified Engineer and Frontier Business Operator workforce to 15,000.In a September 7 announcement, Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S. said, “We are hiring American graduates, standing up new American job categories for the AI era, and putting Cognizant’s capital and leadership behind a national coalition built to make sure this transition works for workers.” Published - September 09, 2026 04:30 pm IST
