US Suspends Cognizant and Top IT Firms from Green Card Program
CTSH sits 53% above its 52-week low of $37.08.
Summary
The US Department of Labor suspended Cognizant and other major IT outsourcing firms from the Permanent Labour Certification Programme, blocking new and pending green card applications for H-1B workers. The suspension, announced by Labour Secretary Keith Sonderling alongside VP JD Vance, also includes Infosys, TCS, Wipro, HCL, Capgemini, Microsoft, and Adobe. Since 2009, these companies collectively requested nearly 3 million foreign workers and received over 230,000 H-1B approvals and 100,000 permanent labour certifications. This directly threatens Cognizant's ability to retain and sponsor skilled foreign talent, a core part of its delivery model. The move follows a federal court ruling two days ago that halted the $100,000 H-1B application fee, suggesting escalating regulatory pressure on IT services firms. No timeline for reinstatement was provided.
At the time of this announcement, CTSH was trading at $56.71 on NASDAQ in the Technology sector, with a market capitalization of approximately $25.5B. The 52-week trading range was $37.08 to $87.03. This news item was assessed with negative market sentiment and an importance score of 8 out of 10. Source: Business Line.