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Written By : BarkatKhan
Chronicle Craze News Desk.
Meta Description: In October 2026, the US suspended PERM green card processing for Microsoft, Infosys, TCS, and six other tech companies. VP JD Vance's "foreign indentured servants" comment triggered a sharp response from India's government. Here's the full story.October 8, 2026. Washington, D.C. Vice President JD Vance and Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling stood before the press and announced a decision that caught the entire tech industry off guard: PERM permanent labor certification would be suspended for eight major technology companies.
The list covered two categories. American tech giants Microsoft and Adobe. And six Indian IT services powerhouses — Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro, HCLTech, Cognizant, and Capgemini.
What is PERM? For foreign workers on H-1B visas, it is the first door on the path to a green card. Without Labor Department certification, an employer cannot begin the employment-based immigration process for a foreign worker. In other words, once that door closes, the American dream is put on indefinite hold for hundreds of thousands of Indian tech workers in the United States.
The Labor Department's position was blunt: no new PERM applications would be accepted from the named companies, and applications already submitted but not yet processed would be frozen as well. As for when the freeze would lift, Vance's exact words were — "for as long as necessary."
If this had been a purely administrative PERM freeze, it might have remained a routine immigration policy story. But Vance chose a phrase with enormous historical weight.
At the press conference, he repeatedly used the term "foreign indentured servants" to describe H-1B visa holders. He singled out Microsoft, claiming the company laid off 6,000 American workers last year while securing 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards during the same period — "for every American worker laid off, one and a half foreign indentured servants brought in."
"Indentured servants" is not a neutral phrase. It carries the painful memory of the 19th and early 20th centuries, when over a million Indian laborers were transported under the British colonial system to plantations across the globe. For Indian society, this is not a metaphor to be taken lightly.
India's Ministry of External Affairs responded swiftly and sharply. On October 9, the Indian government issued a statement calling Vance's remarks "deeply offensive" and "unwarranted."
The statement read: "The use of terminology with painful historical and colonial connotations is deeply offensive." India emphasized that Indian professionals in the United States are highly educated, highly skilled contributors — not "indentured servants" in any sense.
In a statement filed with stock exchanges the following day, TCS said it does not expect the PERM suspension to have a material impact on its workforce strategy or client partnerships. The reason is straightforward: over the past two years, TCS filed only "a single-digit number" of PERM applications. The company also reaffirmed its plan to hire 15,000 people in the US over the next five years, stressing that its American strategy is "centered on local hiring."
This is not merely diplomatic language. The Indian IT industry's reliance on H-1B has been declining for years. Cognizant's H-1B approvals dropped from 9,413 in 2020 to 3,510 this year. The industry has been shifting toward localization and offshore delivery.
But official calm cannot mask individual anxiety. For Indian engineers who have worked in the US for years and are waiting for PERM certification to extend their status, what does the freeze actually mean? The Indian government itself acknowledged that while existing H-1B visas remain valid, "the permanent residence/green card process for eligible employees may be affected."
The harsher reality: the green card backlog for Indian nationals in EB-2 and EB-3 categories is already measured in decades. The EB-2 category has long been "unavailable." The PERM freeze makes an already endless wait even more hopeless.
Everything known so far comes from verbal statements at the October 8 White House press conference. Labor Secretary Sonderling mentioned that Microsoft and Adobe were suspended because of "ongoing federal investigations." But the subject, content, and progress of those investigations have not been made public.
Legal experts point out that the Labor Department may be invoking 20 C.F.R. § 656.31(b), which allows for suspension of PERM processing during investigations of possible fraud or willful misrepresentation. If that is the basis, an initial suspension can last up to 180 days and may be extended while investigations or court proceedings are ongoing.
This also means affected individuals and companies may need to seek relief through legal channels. Analysts have already noted that suspending a company from a federal program before any violation is proven could face legal challenges.
Just one day before the PERM announcement, the Department of Homeland Security published a proposed rule: **US universities would have to pay $70,000 for each international student's first OPT (Optional Practical Training) application**, plus another $30,000 for extensions.
In August, DHS had also proposed a fee of approximately $103,000 for H-1B petitions, though an earlier attempt to raise fees to $100,000 was blocked by a court.
At the same press conference, Vance also named nine top US universities — including MIT, Harvard, Yale, and Stanford — accusing them of "suspected J-1 visa fraud." The Labor Department's Inspector General said subpoenas had already been served.
The signal is unmistakable: legal immigration pathways are being narrowed, one by one.
This posture of "protesting while reassuring" reflects India's delicate position in US-India relations. Ties were already under strain over trade, tariffs, Russia, and US engagement with Pakistan. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had previously warned that growing US-Pakistan ties would harm India-US relations.
India chose to speak firmly on this issue while avoiding escalation into a full diplomatic confrontation. The line in the statement — "talent mobility adds value to both economies" — is both a defense and a reminder: the contribution of Indian IT talent to the American tech ecosystem is not a one-sided story of benefit.
Release of written guidance. Will the Labor Department issue a formal notice specifying the legal basis, duration, and conditions for lifting the suspension? This will determine whether affected companies have a clear legal remedy.
The possibility of judicial challenge. Suspending a company from a federal program without specific evidence of violations may face legal hurdles. Analysts have noted that courts may not uphold a "punish first, investigate later" approach.
Reconfiguration of talent flows. Every time the US tightens visas, some work flows back to India. India already has 2,117 Global Capability Centers (GCCs), employing 2.36 million people with annual revenue of $98.4 billion. If the US door continues to narrow, more high-value work may move to India itself.
Diplomatic follow-up. Indian Prime Minister Modi is expected to attend the G20 Summit in the US in December, and Secretary of State Rubio is scheduled to visit India this month. The PERM issue and Vance's remarks are likely to feature in these high-level engagements.
For hundreds of thousands of Indian tech workers in the United States, this October has brought not definitive bad news, but the agony of uncertainty. The PERM freeze does not mean immediate loss of work status, but it means the road to permanent residency is now shrouded in fog for the foreseeable future.
And for US-India relations, the sting of the phrase "indentured servants" may linger far longer than any administrative decision.
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