H-1B Visas to Local Hiring: How IT Majors Prepared for US Immigration Curbs

Gist The US Department of Labor suspended major Indian IT firms from the Permanent Labour Certification Programme PERM , a key step for employment-based green cards. However, this regulatory curb will have minimal business impact because Indian IT majors have already transitioned away from a visa-dependent model. By aggressively expanding local hiring and establishing nearshore delivery centres, the industry has successfully insulated itself from volatile US immigration policies. Background Historically, Indian IT firms relied on an offshore-to-onshore employee ratio of 70:30 , executing routine work in India while sending senior engineers to the US on H-1B visas for complex projects and client relations. The PERM is a crucial regulatory certification required before a foreign worker can obtain an employment-based US green card. Faced with tightening US immigration policies—specifically efforts by the Trump administration to impose massive financial penalties on visa petitions—Indian tech giants began fundamentally altering their business model to reduce their exposure to regulatory shocks. Key Pointers Shift to Nearshoring: To bypass US visa bottlenecks while maintaining geographic proximity and time-zone alignment, IT firms are setting up delivery hubs…