White House blocks Microsoft from foreign worker hiring program

The White House has prohibited Microsoft and several other technology companies from employing skilled overseas workers permanently under a widely utilized visa program, according to recent reports. Vice President J.D. Vance accused Microsoft, along with other corporations, of fraud by exploiting the H1b visa program and a related process for foreign workers to become permanent US residents.

Vance alleged that Microsoft, a highly valuable US company, has been replacing American workers with foreign labor. Microsoft stated that most of the H1b visas filed in the previous fiscal year were for existing employees who are paid the same as local staff. However, Vance maintained that no company in the US has abused the system more than Microsoft.

The US government will not process any new or pending Permanent Labor Certification Program (PERM) applications from Microsoft or seven other companies. The Secretary of Labor, Keith Sonderling, described these companies as visa mills that are flooding the US with foreign workers. The total number of H1b visas is capped at 85,000 annually.

Microsoft, which employs over 200,000 people globally, maintains that the majority of its US employees are Americans and that the international workers it hires through the H1b visa program are compensated at the same level as US workers.