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India-founded tech giant Cognizant hit with green card filing suspension in US amid visa fraud probe
US Labour Department suspends Cognizant’s green card filings amid a visa fraud probe, while Cloudera also faces PERM suspension.
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Washington: The US Department of Labour suspended India-founded and US-listed tech giant Cognizant’s ability to file for new green card sponsorship on Tuesday, amid an investigation into alleged visa fraud.
“Threats to American workers will NOT be tolerated,” said the Labour Department’s Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito in a post on X. Technology firm Cloudera also faced a suspension of its PERM filings, he pointed out.
D’Esposito announced that the company’s PERM filings had been suspended. This refers to the labour certification process that US employers must complete before sponsoring a foreign worker for an employment based green card. Under this process, the US Department of Labour sets a prevailing wage which represents the minimum amount that the job must pay, following which the sponsoring firm must advertise domestically for interested applicants to fill the job. Once a mandatory waiting period is concluded, the firm can proceed with the sponsorship process. Acquiring the PERM certification is typically the first step in securing an employment-based green card for a foreign worker.
Also read: Trump administration to launch probe into Cognizant over H1B visa ‘fraud’
Cognizant, which was founded in Chennai in 1994 and is now headquartered in the United States, is typically one of the largest petitioners for H-1B visas in corporate America. According to figures provided by US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Cognizant has received 3,510 approved H-1B visa petitions according to the latest data for fiscal year 2026. This places it sixth overall in the US, behind Amazon, TCS, Infosys, Apple and Microsoft.
Inspector General D’Esposito had hinted at regulatory action against Cognizant some months ago on X. In response to posts by anonymous accounts complaining about visa abuse carried out by the firm, D’Esposito asked users to “stay tuned” using his official Department of Labour handle.
Also read: 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 policy priority and launched “Project Firewall,” an aggressive enforcement initiative targeting employers who abuse the H-1B visa programme, in September last year.
