Trump Administration Suspends Microsoft, Adobe and Major IT Firms From Green-Card Labor Certification Program

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration has suspended Microsoft, Adobe and several major information-technology companies from a federal labor certification program used by employers seeking permanent residency for foreign workers, marking a significant escalation in the administration's scrutiny of employment-based immigration.

Vice President JD Vance announced the Microsoft action Thursday during a White House news conference focused on alleged fraud involving foreign-worker programs.

Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said additional companies being suspended include Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini.

Reuters reported that the administration cited alleged fraud in announcing the action.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to Reuters or the Associated Press requests for comment.

The suspension affects the Permanent Labor Certification program, commonly known as PERM.

PERM is a major step in the employment-based green-card process for many foreign workers, including workers who are already employed in the United States under temporary H-1B visas.

The action does not, by itself, mean Microsoft or the other companies have been suspended from the H-1B program.

It instead restricts their ability to use the Labor Department certification process necessary for many workers to move toward permanent employment and lawful permanent resident status.

What the PERM program does

The Department of Labor says permanent labor certification allows a U.S. employer to seek permission to employ a foreign worker permanently in the United States.

Before an employer can generally submit the related immigration petition to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the employer must first obtain certification from the Labor Department.

The government is required to determine that there are not sufficient U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified and available for the job opportunity.

The department must also determine that employing the foreign worker will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed American workers.

Employers generally conduct recruitment for U.S. workers and document that process before receiving certification.

Because PERM is connected to permanent employment rather than temporary work authorization, it is legally and administratively distinct from the H-1B program.

H-1B visas allow eligible employers to temporarily employ foreign professionals in specialty occupations.

A worker may initially come to the United States through H-1B status and later be sponsored by an employer for permanent residence, at which point PERM may become part of the process.

Microsoft singled out by Vance

Vance focused heavily on Microsoft during Thursday's announcement.

He accused the company of laying off American employees while continuing to rely on foreign workers.

The vice president said the administration believes Microsoft's employment practices warrant suspension from the permanent labor certification system.

Those statements represent allegations by the administration and do not themselves establish that Microsoft committed fraud.

Reuters reported that federal officials cited alleged fraud but had not, in the initial announcement, publicly provided a detailed case establishing wrongdoing by Microsoft.

Microsoft had not issued an immediate response at the time of the Reuters and Associated Press reports.

Several major technology employers affected

The action extends well beyond Microsoft.

Sonderling said Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, Capgemini and Adobe would also be suspended from the program.

Several of those companies rank among the largest users of employment-based foreign-worker programs in the United States.

The companies operate across software development, consulting, cloud computing, information technology outsourcing and other highly skilled sectors.

The inclusion of both major U.S. technology companies and large global IT services firms gives Thursday's action significantly broader consequences than an enforcement case against a single employer.

The administration had not immediately disclosed how many PERM applications would be affected across the companies or how long every suspension would remain in effect.

The immediate practical impact will depend in part on how the Labor Department handles pending applications, future filings and cases already certified before the suspension.

Why PERM matters to technology workers

PERM is particularly important in the technology sector because many foreign professionals initially work in the United States under temporary immigration status before seeking permanent residence.

For many employment-based green-card categories, an employer cannot simply petition for permanent residence without first completing the Labor Department certification process.

That means a suspension can interrupt the path from temporary employment to permanent residency even if the affected worker retains valid temporary work authorization.

Workers with existing H-1B status are therefore not automatically stripped of that status because their employer loses access to PERM.

However, workers depending on the same employer to sponsor a future employment-based green card could face delays or uncertainty while the suspension remains in place.

The consequences could be particularly significant for employees whose immigration timelines depend on maintaining progress through multiple stages of the employment-based system.

A broader foreign-worker crackdown

Thursday's announcement is part of a wider Trump administration effort targeting what officials describe as abuse of employment-based immigration programs.

The administration in September extended restrictions on certain H-1B workers for another year.

The White House said those restrictions were intended to address what it described as abuse of the program by employers using foreign labor to replace or undercut American workers.

The Labor Department has separately moved to revise prevailing-wage rules covering H-1B and permanent labor certification cases.

Those actions reflect a broader administration strategy of using both immigration policy and Labor Department enforcement to change how employers recruit and sponsor foreign workers.

Earlier enforcement established suspension authority

The Labor Department has already used PERM suspension authority against individual employers during 2026.

Earlier this year, the department suspended permanent labor certification applications filed by Cloudera for 180 days while a Justice Department investigation proceeded.

Federal officials said that case involved allegations that the company used a recruitment process that prevented qualified American workers from effectively applying for positions while representing that no qualified U.S. workers were available.

Those allegations remain distinct from the allegations involving the companies named Thursday.

The earlier action nevertheless demonstrated the enforcement mechanism the Labor Department is now applying on a much larger scale.

Nine universities also face investigation

The administration simultaneously announced a separate expansion of its scrutiny of international student and exchange programs.

Reuters reported that nine universities are being investigated over allegations that they used international students in ways that suppressed American wages.

Harvard, Yale and Stanford were among the universities identified.

Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito said subpoenas had already been served as part of the investigation.

The Associated Press reported that the university investigations involve potential abuse of the J-1 exchange visitor program.

J-1 visas are separate from both H-1B visas and the PERM system and are used for approved educational, cultural and professional exchange programs.

The investigations do not establish that the universities committed wrongdoing.

They do, however, demonstrate that the administration's current enforcement effort extends beyond technology companies and permanent employment sponsorship.

Potential consequences for the technology industry

The technology sector has long relied heavily on foreign-born engineers, software developers, researchers and other highly skilled employees.

Supporters of employment-based immigration argue that foreign professionals help U.S. companies fill specialized roles and remain internationally competitive.

Critics of the existing system argue that some employers can use temporary or sponsored foreign workers to weaken bargaining power, lower labor costs or bypass qualified American applicants.

Those competing arguments have made H-1B and employment-based immigration recurring political and economic issues.

Thursday's suspensions move that debate directly into the permanent-residency process for some of the world's largest technology employers.

If the suspensions remain in place for an extended period, affected companies may have to change how they recruit employees for permanent U.S. positions and how they retain foreign workers already employed under temporary status.

The companies could also face greater difficulty promising a pathway to permanent residence when recruiting workers internationally.

What the action does not do

The announcement does not represent a general cancellation of employment-based green cards.

It does not suspend the entire PERM program nationally.

It also does not automatically revoke green cards that have already been issued.

And it does not, based on the information released Thursday, automatically cancel valid H-1B visas held by workers employed at the affected companies.

The immediate action concerns the ability of named employers to participate in the Labor Department's permanent labor certification process.

That distinction is important because H-1B temporary employment, PERM labor certification and final lawful permanent resident status are separate stages governed by different parts of the federal immigration system.

What happens next

The Labor Department and other federal agencies are expected to continue investigations into the companies and institutions named Thursday.

Key unanswered questions include how long the suspensions will last, exactly which pending applications are covered and what evidence federal investigators have developed against each employer.

Responses from Microsoft and the other affected companies will also be important as they determine whether to challenge the government's findings or modify their employment and immigration practices.

For foreign technology workers, the immediate effect will depend heavily on their individual immigration status and where they are in the permanent-residency process.

For the broader technology industry, Thursday's action represents one of the administration's most consequential steps yet against corporate use of employment-based immigration.

The decision places Microsoft, Adobe and several of the world's largest IT services companies outside a critical part of the green-card sponsorship system while federal authorities investigate alleged abuse.