The Microsoft green card suspension landed like a thunderclap on Thursday. At a White House event alongside Vice President JD Vance, Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling announced that Microsoft, Adobe, and six of the world’s biggest IT outsourcing firms are being barred from the federal program companies use to sponsor foreign workers for permanent U.S. residency. Follow World Reach Daily for continuing coverage.
No new applications will be accepted from the eight companies. Pending ones won’t be processed. And in the same breath, the administration opened a fraud investigation into how nine elite universities use the J-1 visa program — putting Harvard, Stanford, and MIT squarely in the crosshairs.
With the November 3 midterms less than a month away, the timing is no accident.
Microsoft Green Card Suspension: The Eight Companies Named
The suspended firms are Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, Capgemini, Microsoft, and Adobe. All are being shut out of the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) program — the Department of Labor step employers must clear before sponsoring a foreign worker’s green card.
Sonderling didn’t mince words. “The Department of Labor is taking historic action by shutting down the pipeline of systemic fraud,” he said at the October 8 event. Later he went further: “We are cutting off the head of the snake, the companies that have enabled this abuse for decades.”
The scale is enormous. Since 2009, the eight companies have applied to bring in nearly 3 million foreign workers. They’ve received more than 230,000 H-1B visas and over 100,000 permanent labor certifications — hundreds of thousands of jobs that administration officials argue should have gone to Americans.
Why Microsoft Got Singled Out
Microsoft took the hardest hit rhetorically under the Microsoft green card suspension. Administration officials said the company laid off roughly 6,000 American workers in 2025 after certifying it couldn’t find qualified U.S. employees — then got approved for more than 6,000 H-1B visas anyway and filed 3,682 PERM applications, including nearly 1,000 for the very positions held by the laid-off Americans.
Microsoft was described as having “abused this system more than” any other U.S. company.
Vance was even blunter. “Our message to Microsoft is: You’re a great American company but you’ve to hire great American workers,” he said. “You cannot lay off American workers and then replace them with foreign indentured servants.”
Microsoft pushed back. In a statement, the company said the “vast majority” of its U.S. employees are Americans, and that out of roughly 6,000 H-1B applications in the past fiscal year, 80% were to extend or change the status of existing workers rather than bring in new ones. “We believe in the strength and talent of the American workforce,” the company said.
The administration said Microsoft and Adobe were included “due to multiple active federal investigations” — meaning criminal probes by the Labor Department’s inspector general are already underway.
Universities Are Next: The J-1 Investigation
At the same event where the Microsoft green card suspension was announced, Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito announced a fraud investigation into how nine major American universities use J-1 visas, which cover teaching, studying, and research. The named schools: the University of Pittsburgh, Harvard University, Stanford University, Brown University, the University of California, Davis, the California Institute of Technology, Arizona State University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“Subpoenas have been served, investigations are underway and nobody will be getting a free pass because their name is carved into an expensive building,” D’Esposito said.
This is a new front in Trump’s long-running feud with elite universities. The administration has already pushed colleges to sign a compact adopting its higher-education policies, investigated them for alleged discrimination, and moved to withhold federal funding. Targeting their visa practices hits where it hurts most: the international talent pipelines that feed research labs and faculty ranks.
The Bigger Immigration Battle
The Microsoft green card suspension fits a crackdown that started the day Trump took office last year. The centerpiece has been mass deportation of immigrants without legal status, but the administration has steadily widened its sights to legal immigration programs too.
Earlier this year, the administration imposed a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas — the skilled-worker visas tech companies rely on — before a federal judge blocked it. The Department of Homeland Security has since proposed a permanent charge of $103,265 per H-1B visa. The H-1B program has drawn fire even within Trump’s own movement, with MAGA figures arguing it displaces American workers.
Thursday’s announcement lands four weeks before the midterms, and it plays directly to the Republican base’s immigration concerns. Trump’s approval ratings are at the lowest of his political career in recent polls, dragged down by worries over the Iran war and inflation. A fight with big tech and elite universities over American jobs is red meat for his voters — and a political headache for Democrats, who must defend a system the administration is now calling a fraud pipeline.
Conclusion
The Microsoft green card suspension announced Thursday is the most aggressive move yet in the White House’s war on legal-immigration programs. Freezing eight major employers — including two of the biggest names in tech — out of the PERM process cuts off a key route to the green card, and the J-1 probe drags nine top universities into the fight. Microsoft disputes the allegations, and the suspensions will almost certainly face legal challenges. But with the midterms weeks away, the political message is unmistakable: the administration is betting that “American workers first” is a winning argument — and it’s willing to take on Silicon Valley and the Ivy League to make it.
Sources and Resources
White House suspends Microsoft, other firms from green card program — USA Today
US suspends immigration programs for Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, Capgemini and HCL — ET Now
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly did the White House announce on October 8?
The Department of Labor’s Microsoft green card suspension bars eight companies — Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, Capgemini, Microsoft, and Adobe — from the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) program. The department will not accept new applications or process pending ones from these firms, effectively freezing their ability to sponsor foreign workers for green cards.
What is the PERM program?
PERM (Permanent Labor Certification) is the first step employers take when sponsoring a foreign worker for a U.S. green card. The company must show the Department of Labor that no qualified American workers are available for the position. Without PERM approval, the employer can’t move forward with permanent residency sponsorship.
Why was Microsoft singled out?
Officials said Microsoft laid off about 6,000 American workers in 2025 while certifying it couldn’t find qualified U.S. employees — then won approval for over 6,000 H-1B visas and filed 3,682 PERM applications, nearly 1,000 of them for the same roles the laid-off Americans had held. Microsoft says most of its U.S. staff are American and most of its H-1B filings were extensions of existing workers.
Which universities are being investigated, and why?
The Labor Department’s inspector general announced an investigation into J-1 visa use at nine universities: Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Brown, Caltech, Arizona State, the University of Pittsburgh, and UC Davis. J-1 visas cover teaching, studying, and research. The administration framed it as a fraud probe, though details of the alleged abuses haven’t been made public.
Can these companies fight the suspensions?
Almost certainly. Immigration and employment-law challenges are likely, and the administration’s earlier $100,000 H-1B fee was blocked by a federal judge. Courts will have to decide whether the Labor Department has the authority to bar specific employers from the PERM program and what due process the companies are owed.