US halts Microsoft and Adobe green-card sponsorship filings

The US Department of Labor has suspended Microsoft and Adobe from submitting new, or advancing pending, permanent labour certification applications for workers connected to the H-1B programme, the administration announced on 8 October. Vice-President JD Vance accused Microsoft of abusing the H-1B system, while Labour Secretary Keith Sonderling said the department would stop handling the companies’ affected cases.¹²

Scope of the restriction

The measure blocks a stage in the employment-based green-card process known as permanent labour certification, or PERM. It is not a suspension of the companies’ ability to use H-1B visas, Axios reported. The administration’s action also covered six IT-services companies, while the Straits Times reported that Infosys, Cognizant, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini were among firms affected by the PERM crackdown.¹²³

Sonderling said the department would neither receive new applications nor process pending ones involving the covered companies. According to the Straits Times, the administration said the suspension would continue indefinitely and alleges broad misuse of the PERM process. Vance said the companies should alter their hiring practices and that the restrictions would remain for “as long as it needs to”.¹²

Microsoft dispute

According to the Straits Times, Vance said Microsoft laid off 6,000 American employees in 2025 despite holding 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards. He also alleged that workers hired under H-1B were paid less than US employees in comparable roles. Microsoft said its H-1B staff receive pay equal to that of comparable employees, the newspaper reported.¹²

Microsoft said about 80% of its H-1B applications in the previous fiscal year were for extensions or changes to the status of existing employees, according to the Straits Times. The Guardian reported that Microsoft sought H-1B visas for nearly 3,700 workers in 2026, a figure not independently established in the dossier. It also reported that Microsoft was the fifth-largest employer of H-1B workers.¹²

The companies have been significant users of both systems. Since 2009, Microsoft and Adobe together received about 230,000 H-1B approvals and 100,000 permanent labour certifications, according to the Guardian. Sonderling gave similar totals for the covered companies collectively, saying they had sought almost three million foreign workers since 2009.¹²

Wider immigration actions

The administration has argued that employers have used H-1B visas to replace US workers. H-1B visas are temporary work permits that generally allow a worker to remain in the United States for six years, according to the Straits Times. The paper reported that the administration revised the annual H-1B lottery in 2026 to give greater weight to higher-paid workers, after courts blocked a proposed US$100,000 charge on new petitions for people hired from outside the country.²

The action against the companies came alongside investigations into nine universities over alleged misuse of exchange-visitor visas. Labour Inspector-General Anthony D’Esposito said investigators would examine possible foreign influence, inappropriate financial links and visa abuse in federally funded research, according to the Straits Times. Harvard described an earlier subpoena concerning international students and immigration compliance as “unfounded retribution”, while saying it would comply to the extent legally required.²

Axios reported that, on the day the restriction on Microsoft was announced, President Donald Trump presented the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to the company's chief executive, Satya Nadella. Vance addressed the apparent contrast between the award and the immigration action, though the dossier does not provide his explanation.³