Washington: The US Division of Labour suspended India-founded and US-listed tech large Cognizant’s skill to file for brand spanking new inexperienced card sponsorship on Tuesday, amid an investigation into alleged visa fraud.
“Threats to American employees will NOT be tolerated,” stated the Labour Division’s Inspector Normal Anthony D’Esposito in a publish on X. Expertise agency Cloudera additionally confronted a suspension of its PERM filings, he identified.
D’Esposito introduced that the corporate’s PERM filings had been suspended. This refers back to the labour certification course of that US employers should full earlier than sponsoring a international employee for an employment primarily based inexperienced card. Beneath this course of, the US Division of Labour units a prevailing wage which represents the minimal quantity that the job should pay, following which the sponsoring agency should promote domestically for candidates to fill the job. As soon as a compulsory ready interval is concluded, the agency can proceed with the sponsorship course of. Buying the PERM certification is often step one in securing an employment-based inexperienced card for a international employee.
Additionally learn: Trump administration to launch probe into Cognizant over H1B visa ‘fraud’
Cognizant, which was based in Chennai in 1994 and is now headquartered in the US, is often one of many largest petitioners for H-1B visas in company America. In accordance with figures supplied by US Citizenship and Immigration Providers, Cognizant has acquired 3,510 permitted H-1B visa petitions in accordance with the most recent knowledge for fiscal 12 months 2026. This locations it sixth total within the US, behind Amazon, TCS, Infosys, Apple and Microsoft.
Inspector Normal D’Esposito had hinted at regulatory motion towards Cognizant some months in the past on X. In response to posts by nameless accounts complaining about visa abuse carried out by the agency, D’Esposito requested customers to “keep tuned” utilizing his official Division of Labour deal with.
Additionally learn: Trump’s H-1B fraud probe explained: Why Cognizant was named and what it means for Indian workers
The Trump administration has made combating visa abuse a key coverage precedence and launched “Challenge Firewall,” an aggressive enforcement initiative focusing on employers who abuse the H-1B visa programme, in September final 12 months.
