Labor Department freezes Microsoft, Adobe and Cognizant out of green cards; Infosys touches a six-year low
The Labor Department swept Microsoft, Adobe and six IT services majors out of the PERM green-card program, the loudest beat in a year of visa repricing. Infosys touched a six-year low, then bounced: the market is still deciding whether the freeze breaks the labor-arbitrage model or just sends the work offshore.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
A frozen pipeline and a medal on the same day
On October 8, 2026, the Labor Department suspended Microsoft+2.33% — Microsoft, up 2.33 percent today, Adobe+0.46% — Adobe, up 0.46 percent today, Cognizant−1.68% — Cognizant, down 1.68 percent today, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini from the permanent labor certification program, the PERM step that turns an H-1B hire into a green-card sponsorship 123. New applications will not be accepted, pending ones will not be processed, and no end date was named 12. Hours later at the same White House summit, President Trump hung the National Medal of Technology and Innovation on Microsoft chief Satya Nadella 12.
Vance, who chairs the White House fraud task force behind the move 5, said no company has abused the system more than Microsoft and did the math out loud: 6,000 US layoffs last year against 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards, "one and a half foreign indentured servants" per laid-off worker 124. Microsoft's rebuttal: 80% of its roughly 6,000 H-1B petitions last fiscal year were extensions or status changes for people already on its payroll 2.
Vance's arithmetic: 1.5 visas for every Microsoft layoff
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| US workers laid off (2025) | 6,000 |
| H-1B visas obtained | 6,300 |
| Green cards obtained | 3,000 |
A year that repriced the visa
The freeze is the loudest beat in a twelve-month run that put a price on the visa. The 2026 lottery went wage-based 5. A $100,000 fee imposed by proclamation in September 2025 was vacated by a federal court in June, extended anyway, and followed on August 25 by a proposed permanent $103,265 filing fee 56.
Executive Order 14431 of September 18 directs the Labor, Homeland Security and State departments to weigh an employer's recent or planned US layoffs when adjudicating H-1B petitions 7. Days before the freeze, DHS proposed a $70,000 charge per international student in the OPT program 2. Below the headlines, immigration lawyers report extensions and transfers stuck at USCIS, starting at Cognizant and spreading to Infosys and Microsoft 5.
The conveyor belt got a price tag
Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling sized the cohort under suspension: since 2009 the eight firms have requested almost 3 million foreign workers, receiving more than 230,000 H-1B approvals and 100,000 labor certifications 48. That conveyor, visa first and residency second, is the cost basis of India-delivered IT services. Every lever this year raised its price, and none of the price setters sits in Bangalore. Amazon+3.31% — Amazon, up 3.31 percent today filed the largest H-1B count of 2026, 35,426 petitions, and is not on the list 8.
Washington put a price on the pipeline: $70,000 to $103,265 per head
- Estimate
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Proclamation H-1B fee (vacated, extended) | $100,000 |
| Proposed DHS H-1B fee (estimate) | $103,265 |
| Proposed OPT charge per student (estimate) | $70,000 |
Two prices for one headline
The tape argued with itself. Infosys traded near a six-year low on the announcement; its ADR and Wipro's fell as much as 4% before Infosys closed up 1.1% 910. On Friday the Nifty IT index jumped 3.3% and TCS 5.4%, helped by TCS results that put its AI work above 10% of revenue and an OpenAI$1.18T — OpenAI, private, latest valuation $1.18T revenue disclosure that cooled the sector's AI-displacement fears 1011.
TCS said it expects no material impact on its workforce strategy or client engagements 11. SBI Securities called the suspension neutral to positive long term because it pushes delivery offshore, where margins are fatter, and NASSCOM says visa dependence was already falling 1011.
What the prints have to prove
One caveat is on the record: the announcement set no end date, left subsidiaries unresolved, and its allegations are not findings 3. The dated tests are the suspended cohort's coming quarterly prints, read as cost-model stress tests rather than demand tests, and the next cap season, with the six-figure fee still in court 56.
The bear case has a falsifier: if the $100,000 fee dies in court for good and the $103,265 proposal never lands, the per-head cost of the model falls toward zero and the structural-impairment case with it 56. The sector entered the week down 30 to 35% on AI-displacement fears 10. If wages were the old margin story, visas are the new one.
Deepdive
AI-generated from this story and its cited sources. Not investment advice.
