The U.S. Department of Labor has suspended Microsoft, Adobe, and several large IT services firms from the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) program, a key route for H-1B visa holders to obtain green cards. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said the department will not accept or process new or pending applications for the named companies. The move is part of a broader administration crackdown on foreign-worker hiring, with CNBC noting it comes ahead of November's midterm elections.
Vice President JD Vance said at a press conference that no company has abused the system more than Microsoft, claiming it laid off 6,000 American workers while benefiting from 6,300 H-1B approvals and nearly 3,000 green cards. Tom's Hardware reports Vance also said Microsoft filed 3,682 PERM applications, about 1,000 of which overlapped with positions held by laid-off workers. The Verge adds that Sonderling accused Microsoft and Adobe of requesting almost 3 million foreign workers and receiving over 230,000 H-1B visa approvals.
Microsoft pushed back in a statement, saying 80% of its roughly 6,000 H-1B applications last fiscal year were to extend or change the status of existing employees, not to hire new people. The company said the remaining filings for new employees were for individuals already legally in the U.S. and equal only 1% of its U.S. workforce. All four sources agree on the list of suspended companies, which also includes Cognizant, Infosys, Capgemini, Tata, Wipro, and HCL. TechCrunch additionally reports that the administration said it would investigate nine universities, including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, over similar allegations.