The Trump administration has suspended Microsoft’s access to a federal program employers use to sponsor foreign workers for green cards. Vice President JD Vance said Adobe and six outsourcing firms are also blocked from filing new applications or having pending ones processed through the Permanent Labor Certification Program, known as PERM.
The administration alleges that the companies used visa programs to replace U.S. workers with lower-paid foreign employees. Vance pointed to figures he said showed Microsoft had laid off 6,000 American workers last year while receiving 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards.
Redmond-based Microsoft disputed the characterization of its hiring. It said roughly 80% of the approximately 6,000 H-1B applications it filed in the last fiscal year involved extensions or status changes for existing employees. Its filings for new hires, the company said, concerned people already legally in the United States and amounted to 1% of its U.S. workforce.
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