US bars Microsoft, Adobe, IT firms from green card program — SkimNews
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- The Trump administration suspended Microsoft, Adobe, Capgemini, Cognizant, HCL, Infosys, Tata, and Wipro from the skilled-worker permanent residency program, citing alleged fraud.
- Vice President JD Vance said at a Thursday news conference: "Our message to Microsoft is: You're a great American company, but you've got to hire great American workers," making the domestic-hiring pressure explicit.
- Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling announced the government will not accept any new or pending permanent labor certification applications involving the suspended companies, cutting off their application pipeline.
- H-1B visas are designed for highly skilled positions that U.S. employers struggle to fill, and nearly three-quarters of approved visas go to workers from India — making Indian-heavy firms like Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, and Cognizant especially exposed.
- Vance also said the administration will investigate nine universities, including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, over allegations they abused programs for international students and suppressed wages for American workers.
- Microsoft and Adobe did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suspension.
Why it matters: The suspension list skews heavily toward Indian IT outsourcing firms — Cognizant, Infosys, HCL, Tata, and Wipro — and India accounts for nearly three-quarters of H-1B recipients, so the Labor Department's rejection of new and pending applications cuts off a core staffing pipeline these companies rely on to place workers in U.S. roles.
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