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US suspends Cognizant PERM filings over visa probe
The Indian Express··9 Sept
The US Department of Labour has suspended PERM filings by Cognizant and Cloudera while investigating alleged employment visa fraud. Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito said Cognizant's filings are suspended. He added that "Threats to American workers will NOT be tolerated." Cognizant had 3,510 H-1B petition approvals as of June 30. Neither company has released a statement yet.
Prism
What It Means For You
- Foreign Cognizant workers seeking employer-sponsored Green Cards cannot get new PERM filings while the suspension holds.
- The Labour Department has not said how many applications are affected or how long the bar lasts.
- Cloudera faces the same PERM filing freeze under the same probe.
What's Happening
- PERM is the Department of Labour step that certifies a US labour-market test before an employment-based Green Card.
- D'Esposito said the inquiry was coordinated with the White House Fraud Task Force.
- The administration opened a wider H-1B and PERM fraud investigation in July.
What PERM Certification Does
- Cognizant was founded in Chennai in 1994 and is now headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey.
- USCIS data cited in reports put Cognizant's H-1B approvals at 3,510 as of June 30, down from 9,413 in 2020.
- Ravi Kumar Singisetti has been Cognizant's CEO since January 2023.
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