In a move that reveals the deep tension between economic nationalism and the global architecture of the American technology sector, the Department of Labor suspended eight major firms — including Microsoft and Adobe — from sponsoring foreign workers for permanent residency, alleging systematic abuse of a program meant to be a last resort. The action, announced Thursday, freezes all pending applications and signals a hardening posture toward an industry that has long relied on international talent pipelines. Yet within hours, President Trump honored Microsoft's CEO with the National Medal of Te
Adobe, Microsoft suspended from visa program amid fraud allegations
punishment and honor delivered within hours
Mark
Why does the PERM program exist in the first place? Is it just a loophole?
Mimi
No, it's designed to let companies hire globally when they genuinely can't find American workers for specialized roles. The idea is you have to prove you tried to recruit domestically first. But Sonderling's argument is that these companies stopped trying—they just went straight to foreign hiring.
Luke
Right, but we should be careful here. The allegation is fraud, but what does that actually mean? Did they falsify applications? Did they not conduct required recruitment? The reporting doesn't specify the mechanism of the abuse.
Mark
So we don't know exactly what they did wrong?
Luke
We know Sonderling says they abused it. We know Microsoft filed 6,260 applications. We don't know if that volume itself is the problem or if there's something in how they filed.
Mimi
The scale is part of the story though. Microsoft approved more than double Apple's number. That's a real disparity.
Mark
But Amazon filed for even more H-1B visas and didn't get suspended. Why?
Luke
That's the question nobody answered. The criteria for who gets frozen and who doesn't isn't clear from what we have.
Mimi
Maybe it's about the specific program. H-1B is temporary; PERM is permanent residency. The administration might see permanent sponsorship as more threatening to American workers.
Mark
And Nadella getting the medal the same day—is that real or theater?
Luke
It happened. Whether it's contradictory or strategic, that's interpretation. What's factual is the timing and the words used.
Mimi
It does suggest the administration isn't trying to destroy these companies, just pressure them on immigration policy.
Mark
But if you're Microsoft, do you know what you're supposed to do differently?
Luke
That's the real gap. There's no guidance on what changes would get them unsuspended.
Il Polso
- The Labor Department froze all pending PERM applications for eight tech giants — Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini — effectively severing their ability to sponsor foreign workers for permanent residency overnight.
- Microsoft's dominance of the program was staggering: 6,260 approved applications in a single year, more than double Apple's total, making it the primary target of VP Vance's sharpest public criticism.
- Amazon, which filed nearly triple Microsoft's H-1B applications, was conspicuously absent from the suspension list, raising immediate questions about whether the penalties were principled policy or selective pressure.
- Microsoft pushed back quietly, noting that the vast majority of its workforce holds U.S. citizenship, while the other seven suspended firms offered no public response at all.
- Hours after the suspension was announced, President Trump awarded Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the National Medal of Technology — a collision of punishment and praise that laid bare the administration's unresolved relationship with the industry it is trying to discipline.
In a move that reveals the deep tension between economic nationalism and the global architecture of the American technology sector, the Department of Labor suspended eight major firms — including Microsoft and Adobe — from sponsoring foreign workers for permanent residency, alleging systematic abuse of a program meant to be a last resort. The action, announced Thursday, freezes all pending applications and signals a hardening posture toward an industry that has long relied on international talent pipelines. Yet within hours, President Trump honored Microsoft's CEO with the National Medal of Technology, a juxtaposition that speaks less to contradiction than to the unresolved question at the center of American ambition: who, exactly, is the economy built for?
On Thursday, the Department of Labor announced the suspension of eight major technology and consulting firms — Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini — from sponsoring foreign workers for permanent residency through the federal PERM program. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling alleged that these companies had treated the program not as a last resort for unfillable roles, but as a deliberate strategy to bypass American workers entirely. All pending applications from the eight firms are now frozen.
The scale of the firms' participation was significant. Microsoft alone received 6,260 PERM approvals between June 2025 and June 2026 — more than double Apple's 2,676. Vice President JD Vance singled out Microsoft as the worst abuser of the system, though his broader critique of H-1B visas carried an awkward inconsistency: Amazon, excluded from the suspension, had filed nearly triple Microsoft's H-1B applications.
Microsoft was the only company to respond publicly, stating that the vast majority of its employees are U.S. citizens. The remaining seven firms said nothing. The suspension's credibility was further complicated when, hours after the announcement, President Trump awarded Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, praising the company's software as among the most capable ever built. Nadella expressed gratitude on social media and pledged to advance American prosperity — without mentioning the freeze. The simultaneous punishment and honor captured, in miniature, the administration's larger struggle to reconcile its pressure on the tech industry with its dependence on it.
On Thursday, the Department of Labor announced it was suspending eight major technology and consulting companies from sponsoring foreign workers for permanent residency in the United States. The freeze targets Adobe and Microsoft—both headquartered in the Bay Area region—along with six other firms: Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini. Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling alleged during a news conference that these companies had systematically abused the PERM program, a federal pathway that allows employers to hire non-citizens for permanent positions and eventual citizenship. The suspension means all pending applications from these eight firms will not be processed, effectively halting their ability to sponsor foreign workers through this channel.
The PERM program, formally known as permanent labor certification, typically requires nearly a year to complete its review process. It exists to allow companies to recruit talent globally when they cannot find qualified American workers for specific roles. Sonderling's accusation was that participating companies were using the program not as a last resort but as a deliberate strategy to bypass the American labor market entirely. The scale of their participation in the program was substantial. Between June 2025 and June 2026, Microsoft filed and received approval for 6,260 PERM applications—more than double the second-place finisher, Apple, which had 2,676 approvals. Intel, Tata, and Oracle followed with 2,409, 2,305, and 2,224 approved applications respectively, according to reporting from Reuters.
Vice President JD Vance used the announcement to escalate his criticism of the tech industry's immigration practices. He stated that no other company had abused the system more than Microsoft. Vance also took aim at the H-1B visa program, which companies use to fill specialized positions without offering workers a pathway to permanent residency. However, his critique of H-1B usage created an awkward inconsistency: Amazon, which was not included in the suspension, had actually filed for more H-1B visas than Microsoft—nearly triple the number. Amazon's exclusion from the freeze raised questions about the criteria used to select which companies faced penalties.
Microsoft was the only suspended company to respond to requests for comment. In a statement, the firm maintained that the "vast majority" of its employees were U.S. citizens, pushing back against the implication that it had systematically prioritized foreign hiring. The company did not address the specific allegation of PERM program abuse or the scale of its approved applications. The other seven companies suspended—Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini—offered no public response to the announcement.
The suspension exposed a contradiction at the heart of the Trump administration's approach to technology and immigration policy. Hours after Sonderling and Vance announced the freeze on Microsoft's ability to sponsor foreign workers, President Trump awarded Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Trump praised Nadella as a "key figure" in Microsoft's history and called the company's software "some of the most capable software ever built." Nadella responded on social media, expressing humility at receiving the honor and pledging to work with the administration to advance technology and American prosperity. He made no mention of his company's suspension from the PERM program. The juxtaposition—punishment and honor delivered within hours—illustrated the administration's balancing act between pressuring tech companies over their reliance on foreign labor and maintaining relationships with industry leaders whose companies remain central to American economic competitiveness.
Citazioni salienti
No other company has abused the system more than Microsoft— Vice President JD Vance
The vast majority of its employees were U.S. citizens— Microsoft, in a statement
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