Washington, September 2026 : The US Department of Labour has suspended permanent labour certification filings by technology services major Cognizant as federal authorities investigate allegations of fraud and potential harm to American workers.
The action affects Cognizant’s filings under the Permanent Labour Certification programme, commonly known as PERM. The programme is a crucial step for employers seeking employment-based green cards for foreign workers and requires companies to demonstrate that qualified US workers are not available for the positions being offered.
“Cognizant’s PERM filings are suspended,” Labour Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito said in a social media post.
“Threats to American workers will NOT be tolerated. Alongside @WHFraudTF, we’re following facts, fraud and finances. Handcuffs await,” D’Esposito said.
The inspector general said his office was working with officials from the Labour Department and the White House anti-fraud task force. However, his statement did not provide details of the allegations against Cognizant, the number of applications affected or the duration of the suspension.
D’Esposito separately announced that PERM filings by technology company Cloudera had also been suspended. “One more. @cloudera: PERM filings SUSPENDED,” he said.
The material released by the inspector general did not indicate that criminal charges had been filed against either Cognizant or Cloudera. It also did not include responses from the two companies regarding the action.
The development came just a day after Cognizant announced plans to expand its workforce in the United States. The company said it intended to hire 1,500 graduates from US colleges and expand its Frontier Certified Engineer and Frontier Business Operator workforce to 15,000 employees.
Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S said the company was committed to supporting American workers during the transition to an artificial intelligence-driven economy.
“We are hiring American graduates, standing up new American job categories for the AI era, and putting Cognizant’s capital and leadership behind a national coalition built to make sure this transition works for workers,” Kumar said.
He added that the company believed artificial intelligence would ultimately create significantly more jobs than it displaced and would shift greater value, wages and accountability towards frontline workers in the United States.
Cognizant also announced that it had joined RAISE US, a bipartisan coalition focused on helping American workers transition into the AI economy. Its Synapse programme has already trained more than one million people, with the company targeting two million participants by 2030.
Under the PERM system, employers must obtain certification from the Labour Department establishing that qualified US workers are not available for a particular position and that employing a foreign worker will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed American workers.
PERM certification is primarily associated with permanent employment and employment-based green card applications. It is distinct from the H-1B visa programme, which allows eligible US employers to temporarily employ foreign professionals in specialised occupations.
The suspension of Cognizant’s PERM filings does not, by itself, mean that the company’s H-1B petitions or other immigration applications have also been suspended.
Cognizant is a US-based multinational technology services company headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey, and listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker CTSH. The company was founded in Chennai, India, in 1994 and continues to maintain a significant workforce and operational presence in the country.
(Disclaimer :The content of this article is sourced from a news agency and has not been edited by the Mavericknews30 team.)
