INDIA on Friday criticised the US decision to restrict a key green-card processing programme for major global and Indian IT firms, including Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro, saying the move fails to advance the shared ambitions of both nations, and dismissed US Vice President JD Vance’s characterisation of foreign professionals as ‘indentured servants’ as entirely “unwarranted and deeply offensive”. As part of broader efforts to bring down the number of foreign workers in the US, the Trump administration suspended the Permanent Labour Certification (PERM) programme for eight IT majors and launched probes into several universities, a decision that comes amid continuing strain in India-US ties. The companies facing the action are Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Microsoft, Adobe, Capgemini and Cognizant. The PERM is widely considered as a pathway for permanent residency and citizenship in the US. The US decision to freeze the programme is expected to affect thousands of Indian technology professionals who rely on employer-sponsored green cards for permanent residency in the US after entering on H-1B visas. In its reaction, Microsoft said 80 per cent of the 6000 H1-B visa applications it had submitted last fiscal year were to extend or change the status of existing employees and not to hire new people. “We believe in the strength and talent of the American workforce.

 

That is why the vast majority of Microsoft employees in the US are Americans. We look forward to providing the administration with additional information,” Microsoft said. “For example, of the approximately 6,000 H-1B visa applications we submitted in the last fiscal year, 80 per cent were to extend or change the status of existing Microsoft employees. These were not to hire new people,” it said. The remaining filings for new employees were for individuals already legally in the US who decided to come work for us, and they equal only one per cent of the US workforce. “They are not new arrivals to our country,” Microsoft said. Microsoft only files H-1B petitions for those who meet the rigorous standards of this visa category, the company said. New Delhi also took strong objection to Vance’s remarks on foreign professionals serving in the US. “We have also seen some comments in this context by the US Vice President. We believe that such descriptions are unwarranted and ignore the fact that Indian professionals in the US are highly educated and skilled contributors to its economy and innovation ecosystem,” it said. “Indeed, 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,” the MEA said in a statement.