Cognizant green-card filings suspended amid fraud probe

BengaluruCognizant’s US green-card filings have been suspended amid an investigation into potential fraud and misuse of employment visa programmes, Anthony D’Esposito, Inspector General at the US Department of Labor, said in a post on X. “Fighting fraud is a Team Sport.....Threats to American workers will not be tolerated. Alongside @WHFraudTF, we’re following facts, fraud and finances. Handcuffs await,” he posted on X.The move could further complicate the immigration outlook for Cognizant’s foreign employees, many of whom already face prolonged waits and uncertainty over obtaining permanent residency and, eventually, citizenship in the US. It could also raise questions among clients about how the company will staff projects requiring specialised skills if the suspension affects the movement or long-term status of foreign workers.Companies generally do not disclose how many employees have received US green cards or how many are currently in the green-card sponsorship process, making it difficult to assess the number of workers directly affected by the suspension.The suspension comes a day after Cognizant announced plans to hire 1,500 US college graduates and expand its frontier certified engineer and frontier business operator workforce to 15,000 people.Stephen Yale-Loehr, retired professor of immigration law practice at Cornell Law School, said: “It is unusual for the Labor Department to publicly announce an investigation and to suspend all green card filings for a company it is investigating. But that is often the way this administration works: to try to shame companies and individuals before all the facts are in.”Cyrus D Mehta, managing partner of New York-based law firm Cyrus D Mehta & Partners, said: “We really do not know the facts and the basis behind the Department of Labor’s decision to suspend the PERM labor certification program. I would think that this suspension impacts labor certification applications that have already been filed, and not already approved labor certifications, based on which the second-step I-140 petitions (Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker) were filed and approved. However, it could spill over to other petitions and cases such as those filed under the H-1B program.”Mehta said uncertainty over the scope and duration of the suspension could also adversely affect employee morale, particularly amid a challenging immigration environment in which the Trump administration is stepping up enforcement actions aimed at protecting US workers. “The ball is in Cognizant’s court to challenge this, and we will have to see how it plays out,” he added.In July, the US Department of Labor launched a nationwide investigation into alleged fraud involving the H-1B and PERM employment visa programmes. D’Esposito said whistleblower complaints had referred to companies “like Cognizant” in connection with the programmes. The investigation comes even as Cognizant’s use of the H-1B programme has declined significantly over the past several years. US Department of Labor data shows the company filed 10,189 Labour Condition Applications (LCAs) in 2018, compared with 3,436 in 2025. An LCA is a mandatory filing employers submit to the Department of Labor before sponsoring a foreign professional for an H-1B visa and attesting that the hiring will comply with wage and labour regulations. An email sent to Cognizant seeking comment did not elicit a response till press time.Get the latest Business News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.