The White House has barred Microsoft Corp. from further participation in a federal program that enables U.S. companies to apply for green cards for employees holding H-1B visas after accusing it of abusing the system to replace American workers with cheaper foreign workers.

Microsoft’s suspension from the Permanent Labor Certification program was announced by Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling during a press conference at the White House today. Under the PERM program, American employers are required to provide evidence that they were unable to hire U.S. nationals for a particular role before they can sponsor a foreign national for a green card.

Adobe Inc. has also been suspended from PERM because of “multiple active federal investigations,” Sonderling said. The information technology outsourcing firms Cognizant Inc., Capgemini SE, Infosys Ltd., Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Wipro Ltd. and HCL Technologies Ltd. were barred from further participation too.

Speaking at the same press conference, Vice President JD Vance (pictured) was especially critical of Microsoft, which he said cut 6,000 American jobs in the last year while securing 6,200 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards for foreign employees during the same period. He slammed the company, accusing it of committing fraud by placing job ads in obscure small-town newspapers so no one would see them. Then, it could claim that it had advertised the jobs to U.S. citizens but didn’t receive any suitable applicants, before abusing the H-1B visa to recruit cheaper foreign labor.

“They’ll go out there and say, ‘We have advertised for a position with our company and nobody is responding to it,’” Vance claimed. “And they will use that lack of response to then go and replace American workers with what is effectively foreign indentured servants.”

HB-1 visas are non-immigrant visas that provide holders with temporary work status in the U.S. for up to three years, with a possible extension of another three years after that period. The visa is designed to enable American companies to hire foreign workers with advanced skill sets and qualifications when they cannot find suitable local candidates. Some of the technology industry’s most renowned executives once entered the U.S. on a HB-1 visa, including Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella, Tesla Inc. and SpaceXAI Corp. founder Elon Musk and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. CEO Lisa Su.

“For every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants,” Vance added. “Our message to Microsoft is: You’re a great American company, but you’ve got to hire great American workers.”

In a statement, Microsoft hit back at Vance’s claims, saying that Americans account for an overwhelming share of its U.S. workforce. It also said that four out of every five of the approximately 6,200 HB-1 visa applications it sponsored in the last year related to people already on its payroll, rather than new hires.

Moreover, the company said, many of the petitions for new hires covered people who were “already legally in the United States,” who opted to join the company. It also said its foreign workers who are brought into the country on HB-1 visas are paid the same as Americans doing comparable work.

The timing of the announcement was unusual, coming just hours before President Donald Trump awarded Nadella with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation at a White House ceremony. Trump hailed Nadella as one of the key figures in Microsoft’s transformation over the last three decades, but did not mention its visa practices.

The White House’s decision to target green cards comes just days after a federal judge blocked Trump’s controversial plan to impose a steep $100,000 fee on all new HB-1 visa applications, which was first announced in September 2025, following a challenge by unions, ​employers and nonprofit organizations. At today’s press conference, Vance also said the administration is going to investigate nine universities, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford, over accusations they have abused a visa program that enables foreign students to come to the U.S.

Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr