The White House bans Microsoft from sponsoring green card applications as JD Vance accuses the company of fraud

The White House has told Microsoft Corp. Banned from further participation in a federal program that allows U.S. companies to apply for green cards for employees on H-1B visas after Microsoft Corp. was accused of abusing the system to replace American workers with cheaper foreign workers.

Microsoft’s suspension from the Permanent Work Certification program was announced today by Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling during a press conference at the White House. Under the PERM program, American employers must provide proof that they have been unable to hire U.S. citizens for a particular position before they can sponsor a foreign national for a green card.

Adobe Inc. was also suspended by PERM due to “multiple active federal investigations,” Sonderling said. Information technology outsourcing companies Cognizant Inc., Capgemini SE, Infosys Ltd., Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Wipro Ltd. and HCL Technologies Ltd. further participation was also prohibited.

At the same press conference, Vice President JD Vance (pictured) was particularly critical of Microsoft, which he said cut 6,000 American jobs last year while securing 6,200 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards for foreign employees. He criticized the company and accused it of fraud by placing job advertisements in unknown small-town newspapers so no one could see them. It could then claim that it advertised the jobs to U.S. citizens but did not receive suitable applicants before abusing the H-1B visa to recruit cheaper foreign workers.

“They go out and say, ‘We have a job posted at our company and no one is responding to it,'” Vance claimed. “And they will take advantage of this lack of response to then replace American workers with what are essentially foreign contract servants.”

HB-1 visas are nonimmigrant visas that grant their holders temporary work status in the United States for up to three years, with a possible extension for an additional three years after that period. The visa is intended to allow American companies to hire foreign workers with advanced skills and qualifications when they cannot find suitable local candidates. Some of the tech industry’s most high-profile executives once entered the U.S. on HB-1 visas, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Elon Musk, founder of Tesla Inc. and SpaceXAI Corp., and Lisa Su, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices Inc..

“For every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign contract workers,” Vance added. “Our message to Microsoft is: You are a great American company, but you need to hire a great American workforce.”

In a statement, Microsoft refuted Vance’s claims, saying Americans make up an overwhelming share of the U.S. workforce. It also said four out of five of the approximately 6,200 HB-1 visa applications the company sponsored last year were for people already on the payroll, not new hires.

Additionally, the company said, many of the new hire requests involved people who were “already legally residing in the United States” and had chosen to join the company. It also says foreign workers brought into the country on HB-1 visas are paid the same as Americans doing comparable work.

Holger Mueller, an analyst at Constellation Research who himself came to the U.S. for the first time on an HB-1 visa, told SiliconANGLE that he was very skeptical of the White House’s claims about Microsoft. He also questioned the wisdom of the government’s approach, arguing that further restrictions on importing foreign talent could harm its leadership in many key areas of the tech ecosystem. “Talent immigration is one of the biggest challenges facing North American technology companies, but it remains one of several ways the U.S. maintains its technology leadership,” Mueller said. “If Microsoft failed to follow proper procedures, that will be resolved in due course, but the company would certainly have a keen interest in playing by the rules so that it can continue to hire foreign talent when necessary. Expect to know the truth sooner rather than later.”

The timing of the announcement was unusual as it came just hours before President Donald Trump awarded Nadella the National Medal of Technology and Innovation at a White House ceremony. Trump praised Nadella as a key figure in Microsoft’s transformation over the past three decades, but did not mention the company’s visa practices.

The White House’s decision to target green cards came 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, first announced in September 2025 after objections from unions, employers and nonprofits. At today’s news conference, Vance also said the government would investigate nine universities, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford, over allegations they misused a visa program that allows foreign students to enter the United States

Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr