Vance says no company ‘abused the system more than Microsoft,’ as the US suspends it and others from a key green card program

Washington has suspended Microsoft, Adobe and six IT services firms from a major green card pathway, and Vice President JD Vance singled out Microsoft at a White House press conference on Thursday, according to Reuters. The administration describes the step as part of an effort against fraud and for American jobs.

Keith Sonderling, the labor secretary, announced that the department will “not accept any new or process any pending permanent labor certification applications involving these companies.” The other six firms are Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Cognizant and Capgemini. Vance added that the suspensions will continue for as long as needed.

Vance said Microsoft cut 6,000 jobs held by Americans last year while it received 6,300 temporary-worker H-1B visas plus green cards numbering close to 3,000. He also described some employers that run job ads drawing little response, then use the thin response to defend hiring foreign staff at lower pay. Microsoft responded that roughly four in five of its 6,000 or so H-1B filings last fiscal year covered renewals or status changes for people already on staff, adding “These were not to hire new people.”

Eight companies are shut out of the PERM step

The program is known as PERM, short for permanent labor certification, and most employer-sponsored green cards depend on it. An employer has to show that bringing in a foreign worker will not damage the wages or job prospects of US workers. Vance described the process as one where a company advertises the job in America before it applies to the Labor Department.

Labor Department data show Microsoft files more PERM applications than any other employer. On H-1B approvals, immigration data put Microsoft fifth among US employers, with Amazon first. A law firm’s summary says H-1B status itself is untouched, so current employees can keep working on their visas. The pause applies only to the labor certification step.

Sonderling said that since 2009 the eight companies have sought close to 3 million overseas workers, winning more than 230,000 approvals under the H-1B program and more than 100,000 labor certifications. Microsoft said pay for its H-1B staff matches that of colleagues in comparable roles. Nasscom, the trade body for India’s IT sector, said Indian companies operating in the US now lean far less on the H-1B program.

Vance also announced investigations into nine universities over what he called J-1 exchange visa fraud: Arizona State, Brown, Caltech, Harvard, MIT, University of Pittsburgh, Stanford, UC Davis and Yale. Anthony D’Esposito, the department’s inspector general, said subpoenas have already gone out. Stanford said it will work with investigators.

Hours after the announcement, Trump honored technology leaders at a White House event, among them Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella, Reuters reports. The department’s H-1B enforcement initiative, Project Firewall, was announced in September 2025.