For generations of ambitious Indian technology professionals, the path to career success and long-term prosperity in the United States followed a well-worn blueprint: earn an engineering degree, secure a role at an Indian tech services firm, earn a transfer to the US on a temporary work visa, renew visas year after year, and eventually secure a green card granting permanent residency. Today, that established script is at risk of being permanently rewritten.
Earlier this month, the US administration issued an unprecedented order suspending eight major technology firms — including US giant Microsoft and India’s four largest IT services providers, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, and HCL Technologies — from permanently hiring skilled foreign workers through the Permanent Labor Certification Program (PERM), the most common pathway to green cards for temporary visa holders. All new and pending PERM applications from the listed companies are now frozen, a change that hits Indian workers particularly hard: Indians currently hold the vast majority of H-1B temporary skilled worker visas, the primary vehicle that allows them to work in the US while pursuing permanent residency via the PERM process.
Industry analysts and trade groups note that the direct financial impact on major tech firms will likely be muted, as the new restriction aligns with a years-long shift away from dependence on H-1B visas for US-based roles. India’s $300 billion technology sector trade association Nasscom says domestic Indian firms have steadily increased local hiring in the US over the past decade, bringing down the number of workers seeking PERM-based green card transitions dramatically.
Wipro has publicly reported that over 80% of its US workforce is hired locally, while TCS says its PERM application volume dropped to single digits over the past two years, falling from 1,804 filings in 2023-24 to 513 in 2024-25, and just two filings for 2025-26, per a Business Standard report citing PERM Tracker. Infosys and Wipro recorded zero PERM filings in the 2025-26 period, the report added. Microsoft noted that most of its H-1B petitions are filed to retain existing skilled employees, not to bring in new foreign workers. Brokerage HDFC Securities echoed the assessment that the business impact will be minimal, as PERM-linked roles account for only a tiny share of overall revenue for the affected firms.
But while the hit to corporate bottom lines may be small, the human toll and broader uncertainty for thousands of Indian tech professionals already in the US is significant. A senior US-based executive at one of the eight suspended firms, speaking to the BBC on condition of anonymity, explained that the restriction will not sink the business, but it has created acute distress for workers stuck in limbo. “A good number of people we know are stuck in a space where they have spent some years in the US but their green card application hasn’t moved,” he said. “Even if they are ready to move back to India, their children don’t want to because they grew up here.”
The PERM suspension is just the latest in a growing slate of restrictive immigration policies that have amplified anxiety and hostility toward Indian immigrants. Since the 2024 US election, US non-profit Stop AAPI Hate, which tracks anti-Asian discrimination, has recorded a sharp spike in anti-South Asian hate speech online, with Indian H-1B visa holders as frequent targets. US Vice President JD Vance drew fierce backlash when he described H-1B holders as “foreign indentured servants” in comments accompanying the PERM ban. While Vance later called the phrasing “imperfect,” India’s foreign ministry condemned the remark as “unwarranted” and “deeply offensive” for its harmful colonial-era connotations.
Immigration legal experts point out that many Indian professionals who built their careers in the US invested heavily to get there, often taking on significant debt for education and professional development, and now have far fewer options as rules tighten. “Many came to the US for better prospects, borrowing heavily to study and build careers. But as rules tighten now, they have fewer options and less ability to absorb the costs,” explained Poorvi Chothani, founder and managing partner of global immigration law firm LawQuest.
With pathways to permanent residency now severely limited for workers at the affected firms, immigration experts say many will be forced to reconsider their long-term plans to stay in the US, and younger professionals may choose not to relocate at all. While some workers could theoretically move to a tech firm not affected by the suspension, Stanford Immigration Policy Lab postdoctoral fellow Ahmet Gulek notes that many employers are wary of hiring foreign workers amid the shifting policy landscape, for fear of future government retaliation. The current tech industry climate, marked by widespread layoffs, cost-cutting, and rapid AI-driven restructuring, also makes job transitions far more difficult than in years past.
India-born professionals already account for a staggering share of the US employment-based green card backlog. As of December 2025, nearly one million Indian nationals were waiting for employment-based green cards, making up 79% of all pending applications, according to data from the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP). The group’s 2026 analysis projects wait times ranging from 5 years to 179 years for highly skilled Indian workers filing new petitions, depending on their visa category.
Alternative pathways to green cards do exist: workers with extraordinary professional achievements or work that advances US national interests can apply for categories that skip the PERM requirement, and wealthy applicants can pursue the EB-5 investor visa, which requires a minimum $800,000 investment in a US business. But experts warn that these alternative routes may be targeted for future restrictions, and most ordinary workers do not have the capital to qualify for the EB-5 program.
Like prior restrictive immigration measures implemented by the current Trump administration, the PERM suspension is expected to face legal challenges in federal courts. Previous actions, including a $100,000 fee imposed on certain new H-1B petitions, were ultimately struck down by courts, and the administration has recently proposed a new $70,000 fee for universities sponsoring international students for post-graduation work visas. Even if the current ban is overturned, the cumulative effect of these policy shifts has created a far more restrictive climate for anyone hoping to study, work, or settle permanently in the US.
One Indian professional who recently secured an H-1B visa after a years-long wait, speaking anonymously to the BBC, noted that immigration reform enjoys bipartisan support in the US, even as the two major parties disagree on the details, and this trend toward tighter restrictions is unlikely to reverse in the near term.
Some industry analysts point to an unexpected long-term consequence of the curbs: rather than shifting jobs to American workers, the restrictions may simply push more tech work offshore to India. The anonymous senior executive noted that many companies are already accelerating this shift, boosted by widespread post-pandemic acceptance of remote work among global clients and the persistent benefit of cost arbitrage.
While experts agree that US companies’ demand for skilled Indian tech talent will not disappear, the way the US accesses that talent is fundamentally shifting. For millions of Indian professionals who once dreamed of building a life in the US, the old, predictable path to permanent residency is no longer a given, requiring a complete rewrite of their long-held career and life plans.
