Administration Suspends Companies From Green Card Sponsorship Program
The Trump administration is suspending Microsoft, Adobe and six IT services companies from a federal program used to sponsor foreign workers for permanent residency, Vice President JD Vance and Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling announced Thursday.
The suspensions concern the Permanent Labor Certification Program, known as PERM. For many employment-based green card applications, employers must first use the program to demonstrate that no qualified, available US worker can fill a position.
At the October 8 press conference, Vance accused Microsoft of using the program while laying off US workers. The article did not establish whether the allegation had been substantiated. Sonderling identified Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini as additional companies being suspended.
According to a Business Insider analysis cited in the article, Microsoft had 1,504 certified PERM applications in the first three quarters of the fiscal year, more than any other employer. Its subsidiaries LinkedIn and Activision had another 174; Adobe had 168.
In response, Microsoft directed Business Insider to a company statement saying that most of its US employees are American. The statement also addressed H-1B applications, a separate visa process: Microsoft said about 80% of the roughly 6,000 applications it filed last fiscal year involved extensions or changes of status for existing employees. It said the remaining applications involved people already legally in the US and represented 1% of its US workforce. Adobe did not respond to a request for comment.
Vance also announced investigations into nine universities, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford, over allegations that they used J-1 exchange visas to suppress American wages. Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito said subpoenas had been served.
The administration did not specify how long the company suspensions would last or how they would affect employees with pending permanent-residency cases. The Labor Department reported that PERM applications took an average of 336 calendar days to process in August.