Trump administration says Microsoft ‘abused’ worker visa program and is cutting off access

The Trump administration is suspending some tech companies, including Microsoft, from an immigration program that lets an employer hire foreign workers that can reside permanently in the US, as reported by Reuters.

In a press conference, Vice President JD Vance claimed the permanent labor certification program — intended for use when there aren’t “sufficient” US workers available to do a job — has become “rife” with fraud over the “past several years,” and that no company has “abused” the system more than Microsoft. “Our message to Microsoft is: you’re a great American company, but you’ve got to hire great American workers.”

The administration is also suspending companies including Adobe, Cognizant, and Infosys. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling claims Microsoft and Adobe “requested almost 3 million foreign workers,” received “over 230,000 H-1B visa approvals,” and “over 100,000 permanent labor certifications.” Vance also said Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers last year and “benefited” from 6,300 H-1B visas and “almost 3,000 green cards.”

Microsoft, in a blog post responding to the suspension, said the following:

We look forward to providing the Administration with additional information. For example, of the approximately 6,000 H-1B visa applications we submitted in the last fiscal year, 80% percent were to extend or change the status of existing Microsoft employees. These were not to hire new people. The remaining filings for new employees were for individuals already legally in the United States who decided to come work for us, and they equal only 1% of our U.S. workforce. They are not new arrivals to our country.

Microsoft only files H-1B petitions for those who meet the rigorous standards of this visa category. We pay our employees some of the highest compensation in the tech sector, and our wages are among the highest of all H-1B filings. We pay our H-1B employees the same as any other employees doing comparable work.

The suspensions are part of a broader crackdown on immigration from the Trump administration, including its recently-announced price hike on H-1B visas that are popular with Big Tech companies.

Update, October 8th: Added Microsoft’s response.