US suspends Microsoft, Adobe and major IT firms from skilled-worker green card program

What happened

The Trump administration is suspending Microsoft, Adobe and several major IT services firms from a federal program that lets employers sponsor skilled foreign workers for permanent US residency, accusing the companies of abusing the system.

Vice President JD Vance announced the move at a press conference, in reporting carried by Reuters and picked up by both The Verge and TechCrunch. The program in question is the permanent labor certification process, which employers are supposed to use only when there are not enough qualified American workers available to fill a job.

Vance's summary of the administration's stance, directed at Microsoft: the company is a great American company, "but you've got to hire great American workers."

The administration's case

According to The Verge, Vance claimed the labor certification program has become "rife" with fraud over the past several years and that no company has abused it more than Microsoft.

Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling supplied the figures behind the accusation. As The Verge reports, he said Microsoft and Adobe together requested almost 3 million foreign workers, received more than 230,000 H-1B visa approvals and obtained over 100,000 permanent labor certifications. Vance separately said Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers last year while benefiting from around 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards.

TechCrunch adds a key operational detail: Sonderling said the government will not accept any new or pending permanent labor certification applications involving the suspended companies. That means cases already in flight, not just future filings, are affected.

Which companies are affected

The two outlets give somewhat different rosters. The Verge names Adobe, Cognizant and Infosys as companies suspended alongside Microsoft. TechCrunch provides a fuller list that also includes Capgemini, HCL, Tata and Wipro — a lineup that covers much of the large IT consulting sector known for high volumes of employment-based green card filings, plus two of the biggest enterprise software vendors.

Microsoft and Adobe did not respond to requests for comment from either publication.

A broader crackdown

The suspensions fit into a wider immigration push by the administration. The Verge notes they follow a recently announced fee increase for H-1B visas, which are heavily used by large technology companies. TechCrunch, citing the Associated Press, points out that nearly three-quarters of approved H-1B visas go to workers from India.

TechCrunch also reports that Vance said the administration will investigate nine universities, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford, over allegations that they are abusing a program for international students and using it to undercut American workers' wages.

Why it matters

Permanent labor certification is the gateway step for employment-based green cards, and the suspended firms are among its heaviest users. Blocking them from the process removes a primary route to permanent residency for a large share of skilled foreign workers in the US tech sector, and it leaves existing applicants in legal uncertainty through no action of their own.

The move also marks a shift in enforcement style: rather than tightening program rules for everyone, the government is naming and penalizing individual employers. For engineering, IT services and enterprise software organizations that rely on foreign talent pipelines, that creates a new layer of political and regulatory risk around hiring plans, and it signals that further escalations — on H-1B fees, student programs or additional companies — may follow.