TCS US – While the Trump administration freezes PERM applications for major tech firms, Tata Consultancy Services is distancing itself from the fallout and pledging 15,000 new US hires.
The message from Tata Consultancy Services on Friday was blunt: the administration’s new freeze on employment-based green card filings is a hurdle the company doesn’t intend to jump.
As the Trump administration moves to tighten its grip on how major corporations utilize skilled-worker immigration programs. the Indian tech giant is publicly distancing itself from the industry-wide friction. In a filing to the stock exchange. the company revealed that its reliance on the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) process—the essential first step for sponsoring foreign workers for permanent residency—has been minimal. Over the past two years, the firm has submitted only a single-digit number of these applications.
The administration’s crackdown has targeted eight of the industry’s largest players: Microsoft. Adobe. Infosys. Wipro. HCLTech. Cognizant. Capgemini. and TCS. The tension flared on Thursday when Vice President JD Vance singled out Microsoft. accusing the company of displacing American workers with cheaper. foreign-born staff. “If you do the math. for every worker that Microsoft laid off. they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants. ” Vance said during the announcement.
Microsoft has pushed back against that narrative. noting that roughly 80% of the 6. 000 H-1B visa applications it submitted last fiscal year were intended to extend or change the status of existing personnel rather than bring in new recruits. For TCS, the conflict over immigration channels is not an existential threat to its footprint. As one of the world’s largest outsourcing firms—managing cloud computing. cybersecurity. and AI projects for clients in banking. retail. and healthcare—the company is leaning into a strategy of domestic expansion.
“Our workforce strategy in the US is anchored in hiring local talent, supported by a robust campus recruitment model,” the company stated. The goal remains clear: to add 15,000 workers to its American operations over the next five years.
The discrepancy between the industry’s heavy reliance on immigration pathways and TCS’s stated pivot toward local recruitment defines the current landscape. While the administration frames the PERM freeze as a necessary investigation into the ethics of tech hiring. the companies involved now find themselves navigating a narrowing path for talent acquisition.
As of last March. TCS maintained a North American workforce exceeding 46. 000 people across 32 locations. with primary bases in New York. New Jersey. and Cincinnati. Globally, the company ended September with a total headcount of 598,056 employees. Despite the scrutiny, the firm is signaling that its momentum in the US is not up for debate.
TCS Tata Consultancy Services PERM Trump administration tech hiring US immigration H-1B JD Vance