Cognizant comes under probe for alleged employee green card violations

Cognizant, the US headquartered technology services company, has come under the spotlight for alleged violations with regard to employment-based green cards.

In a post on X, US Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito said the PERM (Program Electronic Review Management) filings of Cognizant have been suspended. He also said the labour department was investigating the matter, which also includes H-1B visas.

However, the post did not provide further details on the kind of probe initiated against Cognizant and the nature of violations.

PERM filing is a 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 salary that the job must pay. After this, the company needs to advertise domestically for interested applicants to apply.

When the mandatory period is completed, the company can proceed with the sponsorship process. Generally, PERM certification is the first step in the process of securing employment-based green cards for a foreign worker.

The US Labor department official also hinted at a wider action against other companies.

This development has a broader implication for big Indian IT companies including TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCLTech as they are largely dependent on foreign-worker visas to execute their projects in the United States.

However, over the last couple of years, the dependency of Indian IT companies on H-1B visas has reduced significantly as they have ramped up the hiring of professionals in the US along with increased offshoring of the contracts. A majority of Cognizant's employees are based in India.