Microsoft has denied replacing thousands of US workers with foreign employees, saying 80% of its H-1B applications last year were not for new hires. It also said it follows visa rules and pays H-1B workers the same as other staff. Vice President JD Vance had cited 6,000 American layoffs in 2025 alongside 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards.
The Labor Department suspended Microsoft, Adobe and six IT outsourcers from the Permanent Labor Certification program, or PERM, on Thursday amid allegations of visa abuse. It will neither accept new applications nor process pending ones from Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL, Capgemini, Microsoft and Adobe. PERM is the first step toward most employment based green cards; the suspension does not halt H-1B hiring. The department also served subpoenas on nine universities, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford, in investigations into alleged J-1 visa fraud.