The Labor Department said Thursday it will stop accepting and processing applications from eight companies under the program that turns H-1B workers into permanent residents.
The backstory: The Permanent Labor Certification program, known as PERM, requires an employer to advertise a job to American workers before asking the Labor Department to certify that a foreign hire is needed for a green card.
Zoom in: Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said Microsoft and Adobe were suspended due to multiple active federal investigations. Cognizant, Infosys, Capgemini, Tata, Wipro and HCL were named alongside them.
- "Since 2009, just these companies alone have requested almost 3 million foreign workers. They've received over 230,000 H-1B visas approvals and over 100,000 permanent labor certifications," Sonderling said.
What they're saying: Vice President JD Vance pointed to Microsoft's 6,000 layoffs in 2025 and said the company replaced those workers with H-1B hires, adding that the administration will deny Microsoft permanent residencies until it shows it is serious about putting American workers first.
The other side: Microsoft defended its hiring, saying the vast majority of its US employees are Americans and that 80% of roughly 6,000 H-1B applications it filed last fiscal year were to extend or change the status of existing employees.
Between the lines: Trump awarded the National Medal of Science to Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella at the same summit where the suspension was announced. Nadella moved to the US from India in 1988.
- Amazon filed the most H-1B petitions this year at 35,426, followed by Cognizant and EY. Microsoft was a close fourth at 21,706, with a median base salary of $180,710.
Why it matters: Thousands of technology workers now have green card applications frozen at the employers that sponsor the most of them, and those companies lose their main legal path to keep foreign hires permanently.
