US cranks up heat on Indian IT as whistleblowers trigger H-1B audit; Cognizant under lens as labour dept probing alleged fraud in H-1B & green card visa programme

The US Department of Labor's (DOL) latest probe into alleged instances of H-1B visa and green card fraud could adversely impact India's listed outsourcing majors that routinely deploy talent in their biggest revenue-generating market.

While Cognizant has been one of the companies named in the current reported probe, it is unclear if other Indian IT services firms are part of the investigation.

ET's queries to Cognizant, TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL Tech did not elicit any response until publication of this report. According to media reports, the US labour department is investigating alleged fraud in the H-1B and green card visa programme, referred to as the PERM process, by several companies.


According to a statement from the Office of the Inspector General under the DOL, the department has "uncovered schemes where employers have submitted fraudulent applications, exploiting foreign workers and undercutting American workers."

The department has issued multiple subpoenas. "We've already started to issue dozens of subpoenas; we are going to make sure that we track down every lead.

We have whistleblowers talking about some of the biggest companies like Cognizant, who have been sort of, you know, in the chatter of issues with PERM and H-1B visas," Labour Department Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito told Fox Business on Wednesday, according to agency reports.