US halts green card labor certification for Microsoft, Adobe and six other IT firms

The Trump administration on October 8 (local time) halted processing of PERM, the permanent labor certification that IT companies including Microsoft use to sponsor foreign employees for permanent residency. Vice President JD Vance, at a White House press conference on visa fraud, announced that Microsoft is excluded from the program for applying for green cards for H-1B visa workers, saying the companies had broadly abused the work visa system. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini are also excluded. The Labor Department will not accept new PERM applications from the eight companies and will not process applications already filed. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]

Vance said Microsoft laid off about 6,000 US employees last year while proceeding with about 6,300 H-1B filings and about 3,000 green card procedures for foreign employees. "No company in America has abused the work visa system as much as Microsoft," he said, according to Korea Economic Daily. Newsis quoted him as saying that "by our calculation, Microsoft filled each laid-off worker's position with 1.5 foreign indentured servants," and that "our message to Microsoft is this: you are a great American company, but you must hire great American workers." Vance said the duration of the suspension has not been set and it could continue until the companies change their hiring practices. Sonderling said several federal investigations are under way on the issue. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]

Microsoft rejected the claim that it replaces Americans with foreign workers. It said about 80% of the H-1B filings it submitted in the last fiscal year were for extensions or changes of status for existing employees rather than new hires, and that it pays H-1B employees the same as US employees doing similar work. AI Times reported that Microsoft is known as the company with the largest number of PERM applications and is expected to be strongly affected. [ 3 , 4 ]

PERM requires an employer to show that hiring a foreign employee for the green card route does not harm the wages or jobs of US workers; it is the key step for foreign workers on H-1B and other temporary visas to obtain permanent residency with company sponsorship. The administration earlier announced a one-time $100,000 fee on companies for each new H-1B hire from abroad and launched a visa abuse crackdown named Project Firewall; Chosun Ilbo reported the fee policy was later blocked by a federal court. Newsis reported that the Department of Homeland Security in August published a proposed rule for a $103,265 fee on companies hiring H-1B workers, and on October 7 a proposed rule charging schools $70,000 per international student in the Optional Practical Training program. [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]

Vance also said nine universities, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown and MIT, would be investigated; Korea Economic Daily reported the allegation was that they attracted international students to lower American wages, while AI Times reported the probe concerns improper use of exchange visitor visas. Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito said the office would examine whether foreign influence, improper financial relationships or visa abuse undermine federally funded research, and AI Times reported it has already issued subpoenas. Sarah Spreitzer, a vice president of the American Council on Education, said international students spend about $40 billion a year in the United States. [ 1 , 3 ]

Korea Economic Daily noted that Vance's criticism came hours before President Trump awarded Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the National Medal of Science in Washington for contributions to US technology and innovation. Chosun Ilbo reported that Korean engineers in Silicon Valley voiced anxiety in a group chat for Koreans working at US tech companies, worrying about their green card procedures and job changes, with some saying they wanted to return to Korea because of their unstable status. [ 1 , 4 ]