WASHINGTON — The United States has suspended Microsoft, Adobe and six major IT-services companies from a labour-certification process required for most employer-sponsored green cards, potentially disrupting permanent-residency applications for foreign technology workers.
Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said the government would neither accept new applications nor process pending Permanent Labor Certification, or PERM, applications involving Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini.
The PERM process requires an employer to demonstrate that no qualified and available US worker can fill a position and that employing a foreign worker will not adversely affect American wages or working conditions. Certification is generally an early and necessary stage of an employment-based green-card application.
The action does not revoke existing green cards, cancel H-1B visas or prevent the companies from employing all foreign workers. Its immediate effect is narrower: affected employers cannot move new or pending cases through the Labor Department’s PERM process while the suspension remains in force. Workers’ individual circumstances may vary according to the stage of their cases and any alternative immigration routes available to them.
Vice President JD Vance accused Microsoft and large outsourcing companies of misusing the system while reducing US jobs. Officials said the suspensions would continue for as long as necessary and linked the action to ongoing federal investigations.
Those allegations have not been adjudicated, and the government has not publicly presented case-by-case evidence establishing wrongdoing by each company. The suspensions should therefore be reported as an enforcement action based on official allegations, not as a finding that the companies committed fraud.
Microsoft said about 80% of the H-1B applications it filed during the previous fiscal year concerned extensions or status changes for existing employees rather than new hires. It also said it pays H-1B employees the same as other workers performing comparable jobs.
Tata Consultancy Services said on Friday that it did not expect the PERM suspension to have a material effect on its workforce strategy or client engagements and that it would comply with any Labor Department directive. Several other affected companies had not provided detailed public responses when the initial reports were published.
The administration also announced investigations involving nine universities, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Officials alleged possible misuse of exchange-visitor visas and said subpoenas had been served. Those investigations likewise do not constitute findings of misconduct.
The decision has implications beyond the United States because the affected businesses recruit internationally and operate large cross-border workforces. Professionals from India are particularly exposed through the outsourcing companies, while African and other international employees with cases sponsored by the named employers may also face delays. No authoritative breakdown of affected workers by nationality has been released.
