The US government has suspended Microsoft and seven other technology companies from a federal programme that lets employers sponsor foreign workers for green cards.
The other firms that are affected are Adobe, Capgemini, Cognizant, HCL, Infosys, Tata, and Wipro, Reuters reported.
Vice President JD Vance announced the decision at the White House on Thursday and accused the companies of fraud. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said his department will stop accepting new applications from the eight companies and will not process any that are still pending.
The suspension affects the Permanent Labor Certification Program (PERM), which is run by the Department of Labor. This program is usually the first step for getting a green card through employment. Employers have to prove that no qualified American worker is available for the job.
However, the H-1B visa program for skilled foreign workers is unaffected, and green cards already issued will remain valid. This means H-1B workers at these companies can keep their jobs, but their employers cannot begin a green card process for them through PERM.
The officials did not say for how long the suspension will continue.
Yet Vice President JD Vance specifically mentioned Microsoft, saying the company let go of 6,000 American workers last year even as it was approved for over 6,000 H-1B visas.
“Our message to Microsoft is: You’re a great American company, but you’ve got to hire great American workers,” Vance said.
He also claimed that for every worker Microsoft laid off, the company had hired “one and a half foreign indentured servants.”
Microsoft disagreed with that affirmation, and a spokesperson told TechCrunch that most of its US employees are Americans. They also said that 80% of the company’s roughly 6,000 H-1B applications last year were for people already working there.
This move is part of a broader crackdown on work visas. Cognizant was already suspended from PERM in September, according to an announcement by the Labor Department’s inspector general, Anthony D’Esposito.
At the same news conference, JD Vance said the administration will investigate nine universities, including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, as he claimed these schools misuse a program that brings foreign students to the US.
Moreover, Microsoft did not sign the White House’s AI safety accord last month, although its chief executive, Satya Nadella, attended the lunch where the agreement was made.