Trump administration bars Microsoft from green card program, citing H-1B visa abuse

The US government has suspended Microsoft and several other technology firms from a program that allows skilled foreign workers to gain permanent residency. According to Vice President JD Vance, Microsoft has been accused of committing fraud through the use of the H1b visa program and a related process for workers from abroad to become permanent US residents.

Vance claimed that Microsoft laid off around 6,000 American workers last year while employing 6,300 people on H-1B visas and securing nearly 3,000 Green Cards. He accused the company of misrepresenting its needs to replace American staff with cheaper foreign hires. The Labor Department will not process any new or pending Permanent Labor Certification Program (PERM) applications from Microsoft or the seven other companies, including Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini.

Microsoft has responded by saying that the vast majority of its US employees are Americans. A spokeswoman for the company noted that of the approximately 6,000 H-1B visa applications submitted in the last fiscal year, 80% were to extend or change the status of existing Microsoft employees, not to hire new people.

Brief written by urgent.news from Quartz, BBC Technology, Times of India, Economic Times Tech, Investing.com — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.