New Delhi: Reacting sharply to the US Labour Department’s move to suspend new and pending applications for the Permanent Labour Certification Program for workers sponsored by Indian companies, the MEA said in a statement Friday the “steps do not advance the shared ambitions of both countries”.
The ministry also hit back at comments by Vice President JD Vance, calling them “unwarranted and deeply offensive.” Vance, while announcing the suspension, had targeted Microsoft and said they needed to hire “great American workers” instead of replacing them with “foreign indentured servants”.
“The history of the United States itself has been shaped by generations of immigrants whose labour, enterprise and innovation have contributed to its growth and prosperity. Resorting to terminology that carries painful historical and colonial legacy connotations is deeply offensive,” the statement added.
The US Labour Department Thursday announced it would stop processing new and pending applications under the Permanent Labour Certification programme, known as PERM, for workers sponsored by Indian IT companies Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, HCL and Cognizant, as well as France-based Capgemini and US-based companies Microsoft and Adobe, accusing them of fraudulent hiring practices.
Statement on announcement made by the US Department of Labour ⬇️
🔗 https://t.co/FZawXUTqcl pic.twitter.com/67vMRyJ5EF
— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) October 9, 2026
PERM is a critical step toward a green card for many skilled foreign workers. Before an employer can sponsor most employment-based green cards, it must obtain certification from the Labor Department that no qualified American worker is “able, willing, qualified and available” for the job in question.
In its statement, the MEA also drew a line between PERM and the H-1B programme itself. Suspending PERM applications, it said, does not by itself affect the validity of existing H-1B visas or the status of visa holders and their dependents, although it could slow the green card process for eligible employees of the affected companies.
The ministry also argued that the flow of skilled workers benefits the United States as much as India, supplying American companies with talent, innovation, research capacity, productivity, and generating wealth for shareholders. “This is therefore an area of tremendous mutual benefit,” the statement said.
Also read: US takes aim at 8 Indian & American IT giants, suspends them from permanent labour certification
‘Cutting off the head of the snake’
Vance described the system as a pipeline. The H-1B visa, he said, is how workers enter the country, and PERM is “how those employees stay.” After a couple of H-1B renewal cycles, he said, companies apply for PERM, which can lead to a green card and the ability to remain indefinitely.
“The H-1B visa program is meant to allow companies to bring the best of the best from outside the United States,” Vance said, adding that it had become “rife with fraud.”
He singled out Microsoft, saying no company had abused the system more. The company laid off 6,000 American workers last year, he said, while benefiting from 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards. “You’re a great American company,” Vance said, “but you have got to hire great American workers.”
Keith Sonderling, the labour secretary, said the companies had received about 230,000 H-1B visas and more than 100,000 permanent labour certifications since 2009. He said those were jobs “taken from American workers” and that the administration was cutting off “the head of the snake”.
The US action is the latest in what has been a year-long effort by the Trump administration to curb the H-1B system and reduce high-skilled immigration.
Indian nationals have been the largest beneficiaries of the programme, receiving as much as 71 percent of H-1B visas issued in 2024. The Indian community in the United States numbered about 3.2 million that year, making it the country’s second-largest immigrant group. Last year, the administration imposed a $100,000 fee on H-1B applications. Courts have since blocked it, pending further legal review.
Turning to Vance’s remarks, the MEA said Indian professionals in the United States are highly educated contributors to the American economy and its innovation ecosystem. The country’s history “has been shaped by generations of immigrants”, it said.
“We believe that such descriptions are unwarranted and ignore the fact that Indian professionals in the United States are highly educated and skilled contributors to its economy and innovation ecosystem,” the statement said.
This is an updated version of the report
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
Also read: What Indian workers need to know as US halts green-card applications at major IT firms