TCS says US green card suspension will not disrupt hiring

Tata Consultancy Services said the US government’s suspension of the Permanent Labour Certification programme will not materially affect its workforce strategy or client engagements. In a BSE filing, the company said it would comply with any directive from the US Department of Labour and noted that its PERM applications were in “single digits” over the past two years.

TCS said its US staffing approach is centred on local hiring, supported by campus recruitment. The company said it has built a local workforce across 31 offices and delivery centres in the US and reiterated plans to hire an additional 15,000 employees in the country over the next five years.

The suspension covers eight IT companies: TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCLTech, Cognizant, Capgemini, Microsoft and Adobe. US Vice President JD Vance and Labour Secretary Keith Sonderling framed the move as part of a broader crackdown on skilled-worker immigration, with the Department of Labour halting new and pending PERM applications involving those firms.

The PERM programme is a required step for employment-based green cards, requiring employers to show that hiring a foreign worker will not hurt wages or job opportunities for US workers. TCS maintained that its limited use of the programme and local recruitment focus would limit any impact.