Long before Donald Trump administration suspended several Indian IT companies from key US green card programme, these firms had begun reducing their dependence on American work visas, increasingly hiring locally and building delivery centres in countries closer to biggest overseas market.
For years, Indian IT majors had simple business model: handling routine client work offshore from India while sending senior engineers overseas for complex projects and relationship-building. But as US tightened H-1B visa regulations, and Indian IT companies expanded global operations, they began shifting more work offshore while stepping up local hiring in markets like US and Europe.
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The shift has helped shield them from immediate business impact of US Department of Labor's decision Thursday to suspend eight major technology firms, including TCS, Infosys and Wipro, from Permanent Labour Certification Programme, crucial step for employment-based green cards.
Better subsea cables and cloud infrastructure sharply reduced communication and data-transfer costs over last two decades, making it easier to deliver technology services remotely. Pandemic pushed acceptance of offshore work among clients. Trump's September 2025 move to levy $100,000 fee on new H-1B petitions further accelerated shift. Though blocked by US courts, administration has proposed separate $103,265 cap-subject fee.
Historically, Indian IT companies maintained 70:30 offshore-to-onshore employee ratio. Following H-1B fee hike, analysis by Kotak Neo projected this could shift to 85:15 by FY27, with nearshoring gaining traction in Canada, Mexico, and Latin America. It also expected US-based hiring to increase 12-18% between FY26 and FY27. Industry estimates suggest around a fifth of workforce at major Indian IT companies works onshore, with only small proportion dependent on H-1B visas.
Company disclosures provide evidence. In its FY26 annual report, HCLTech said about 80% of its US workforce comprised local hires, reducing visa dependence. Its FY25 sustainability report showed global operations expanded to 20 locations across Americas, Europe and other markets. Workforce at these locations rose from 24,797 in FY24 to 26,083 in FY25, while local hiring rose 47% to 7,731 employees during year.
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TCS opened Al-driven operations centre in Mexico in August 2025, eighth in country. It said it built workforce of over 11,000 employees in Mexico over past 22 years. During July-September FY26 earnings call, TCS CHRO Sudeep Kunnummal said: “We have significantly localised our workforce in the US... we believe our business model will be able to adapt quickly to any changes in immigration policy.”
Infosys on Saturday said it does not anticipate material impact from PERM suspension. The limited exposure is reflected across industry. As per ICICI Securities analysis, Indian IT firms accounted for less than 2% of PERM applications filed in US between October 2024 and September 2025.
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