The Trump administration has suspended Microsoft from a program that lets foreign workers on H-1B visas apply for green cards, Vice President Vance announced Thursday.
Vance, 40, leveled the accusation at an event for his government fraud task force, claiming the tech giant systematically replaced laid-off American staff with cheaper foreign labor. “If you do the math, for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants,” he said.
Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling confirmed the PERM suspension extends well beyond Microsoft. The newly confirmed secretary named Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, Capgemini and Adobe as additional firms now barred from the Permanent Labor Certification program.
“We will not accept any new or process any pending permanent labor certification applications involving these companies,” Sonderling stated. “Since 2009, just these companies alone have requested almost 3 million foreign workers.”
The H-1B program allows employers to hire foreign workers with specialized skills for roles they claim cannot be filled by Americans. Critics have long argued the system is overused, suppresses wages, and enables companies to replace domestic employees with lower-paid foreign staff who face restrictions on changing employers.
The PERM program represents a critical pathway for those H-1B holders seeking permanent residency, requiring employers to demonstrate no qualified American worker is available for the position before green card sponsorship proceeds. Cutting off access forces affected workers into visa limbo and strips companies of a key recruitment tool.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suspension. The timing proved particularly awkward for CEO Satya Nadella, who was scheduled to appear alongside President Trump later Thursday afternoon for a White House ceremony where Trump was expected to receive the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
The administration’s fraud task force event served as the platform for Vance’s sharp attack on Microsoft’s labor practices. His “indentured servants” characterization framed the policy move as a protection of American workers against exploitative corporate behavior rather than a routine regulatory adjustment.
Sonderling’s inclusion of major Indian IT consultancies alongside Microsoft and Adobe signals a sweeping enforcement action targeting the technology sector’s heaviest users of skilled foreign labor. The firms named collectively account for a substantial share of annual H-1B petitions and PERM applications.
The suspension blocks both new filings and pending cases, meaning workers already in the green card pipeline at these companies face indefinite delays. For H-1B holders approaching the six-year visa maximum without other options, the freeze carries significant personal stakes.
Vance’s remarks Thursday built on longstanding conservative criticism of the H-1B program, which has periodically divided the Republican coalition between business-friendly expansion advocates and immigration restrictionists. The vice president’s specific mathematics claim about replacement ratios tied the policy directly to recent Microsoft workforce reductions.
The administration had not specified criteria for lifting the suspensions or whether affected companies could appeal the determinations as of Thursday afternoon.