Five Indian IT firms lose green-card sponsorship as Vance opens a visa-fraud probe of universities

Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and HCL are among the IT firms suspended from the US green card programme⁸. CP24 reported the US freezing green-card applications for Microsoft, Adobe and Infosys over alleged fraud; the fraud is the administration’s allegation and has not been established⁴.

Axios reported that the administration said on Thursday it was suspending Microsoft from a key programme used to sponsor employees for green cards, and that the move also targeted Adobe and six IT service firms¹. The suspension of Microsoft and Adobe was the first step¹; the extension to the Indian IT majors and the widening of the inquiry is the new part⁸.

Vice President JD Vance headlined the event, which also announced a visa fraud probe of universities². He announced a federal investigation into Yale for alleged visa fraud, standing alongside Attorney General Todd Blanche and White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller⁷. TIME reported the crackdown expanding to student exchange visas as well as green cards, with Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling also present⁶, and West Hawaii Today noted Federal Trade Commission chairman Andrew Ferguson among those attending⁵.

Why it matters to investors

The affected firms are the labour-arbitrage core of the IT services industry, and the policy now reaches their US staffing model directly rather than through visa caps⁸. The companies are not conceding an impact. Bloomberg reported that TCS, Asia’s largest IT firm, shrugged off the latest curbs, saying the fresh restrictions will not affect its hiring³.

Axios set out the tension plainly: the administration champions Big Tech while pursuing immigration policies that constrain an industry that has long relied on hiring foreign-born workers, and tech leaders say such restrictions hamper the country’s ability to compete, especially in a race with China on AI¹. The split screen was literal, since the administration honoured Microsoft’s chief executive with a medal for innovation later the same day it suspended the company¹.

What to watch

Watch whether the suspensions are lifted on review or hardened into exclusions, and whether more firms are added beyond the six IT service companies Axios describes^1,8. Watch the university probe, which starts with Yale but was announced as a broad inquiry^2,7. And watch whether TCS’s confidence holds through a reporting season, since its claim that hiring is unaffected is the testable one³.