The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has criticised the United States’ decision to freeze the permanent labour certification process for select tech firms, such as , , and , stating that curbing the global mobility of Indian IT professionals harms both nations and fails to advance their shared strategic ambitions.
“The steps announced by the US do not advance the shared ambitions of both countries,” the MEA said in a statement on Friday, adding that it was an area of tremendous mutual benefit for the two countries and all stakeholders would appreciate this fact.
It should be clear that talent mobility adds value to both economies, it highlighted. “While it creates opportunities for Indians, it equally helps US companies with cutting-edge talent, innovation, research, productivity, competitiveness and job creation, besides creating shareholder wealth in the US,” the statement noted.
US Labour Secretary Keith Sonderling and Vice President JD Vance, on Thursday, announced the immediate suspension of eight major technology corporations from the PERM programme.
The administrative freeze targets Indian IT companies TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL Technologies, and Cognizant, alongside Capgemini, Microsoft, and Adobe.
Under this order, the US government will reject new PERM applications and halt pending ones, obstructing the primary legal pipeline used by foreign tech talent to transition from temporary employment to permanent residency.
The MEA also slammed US Vice President JD Vance’s labeling of H-1B visa holders as “foreign indentured servants” who he said are underpaid compared to their American counterparts and are easily exploited because they face deportation if terminated. “For every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants,” Vance alleged during a joint press conference.
The MEA said 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. “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. Resorting to terminology that carries painful historical and colonial legacy connotations is deeply offensive,” the statement said.
The MEA pointed out that PERM is distinct from the H-1B visa programme. “The suspension of PERM applications does not, by itself, affect the validity of existing H-1B visas or the status of H-1B visa holders and their dependents, though there could be some impact on the permanent-residency/Green Card process of eligible employees of the affected companies,” the MEA stated.