US suspends Microsoft, Adobe and six IT services firms from green-card sponsorship (PERM) over alleged visa abuse

On 8 October 2026 US Vice President JD Vance announced that Microsoft is suspended, with no end date, from the Labor Department's PERM programme (permanent labor certification), the first step in most employer-sponsored green cards. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling named Adobe and six IT services firms in the same action: Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini. The Labor Department will not accept new PERM applications from these companies and has stopped work on pending ones.

• The suspension covers PERM only. Existing H-1B status and work authorisation are not revoked, but green-card progress and H-1B extensions that depend on a pending PERM case can be delayed.
• Vance said Microsoft laid off about 6,000 US workers last year while obtaining 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards, and said "no company in the United States" had abused the system more than Microsoft. Officials said Microsoft and Adobe face multiple active federal investigations and that criminal charges are possible.
• Microsoft disputes the characterisation: it says about 80% of its roughly 6,000 H-1B filings last fiscal year were to extend or change the status of existing employees, the rest were for people already legally in the US, and that it pays H-1B staff the same as comparable colleagues.
• The announcement came on the same day President Trump was due to award Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, and alongside a separate J-1 visa probe of nine universities.

The move follows a year of tighter US skilled-immigration rules, including the $100,000 H-1B fee that a federal judge ruled an unauthorised tax in June (under appeal). The allegations were made at a news conference and are not findings of wrongdoing; the evidence behind the investigations has not been published.

Big Tech and the large IT outsourcers rely heavily on foreign-born engineers. A sponsorship freeze on named employers is a talent-supply risk for US hiring and could push more engineering hiring, and green-card-seeking talent, towards other countries, including Europe.

CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/08/politics/vance-fraud-microsoft-immigrant
The Hill: https://thehill.com/policy/technology/6136675-vance-suspends-microsoft-perm/
Fortune: https://fortune.com/2026/10/08/trump-admin-green-card-microsoft-domestic-workers/
FT: https://www.ft.com/content/5cfecbba-69ed-42d0-98fd-3ae019144692