The Trump administration announced Oct. 8, 2026, that it was suspending Microsoft, Adobe and several information-technology outsourcing companies from the Permanent Labor Certification program, which employers use to sponsor foreign workers for permanent residency.
Vice President JD Vance said the action was intended to address what officials described as misuse of visa programs that can disadvantage American workers. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said the department would not accept new or process pending PERM applications involving the named companies. The report said the list included Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini, alongside Microsoft and Adobe. Sonderling cited active federal investigations.
Vance singled out Microsoft, pointing to company layoffs and its use of H-1B visas and green cards. Those figures and his claims of worker replacement were presented as the administration’s allegations, not as independently established findings in the supplied account.
Microsoft responded that most of its U.S. employees are Americans. The company said that, of roughly 6,000 H-1B applications it submitted in the last fiscal year, 80% sought to extend or change the status of current employees. It said filings for new employees represented about 1% of its U.S. workforce, and maintained that it pays H-1B workers comparably to employees doing similar work.
Officials also announced investigations into alleged J-1 visa abuses at nine universities. Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito said subpoenas had been served and investigations were underway. The universities named in the report included Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown, the University of Pittsburgh, UC Davis, Caltech, Arizona State and MIT.
Vance called on Congress to reform visa programs, while Attorney General Todd Blanche warned that criminal cases could follow if investigators find violations. The supplied account does not report conclusions from the investigations or provide details of the suspensions’ duration or appeal process.
