This article synthesizes published sources listed below. Consult those sources for their evidence and scope.
Eight employers face an open-ended suspension
The Trump administration said the Labor Department will stop accepting new permanent labor certification applications, and stop processing pending ones, involving Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini.
Vice President JD Vance and Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling framed the action as an enforcement measure against alleged abuse of foreign-worker programmes. No public finding of fraud against the companies was presented with the announcement, and the duration was left open-ended.
PERM is a green-card step, not the H-1B programme
The action applies to PERM, the permanent labor certification process that employers generally complete before sponsoring a worker for an employment-based green card. Employers must test the US labour market and show that hiring the foreign worker will not adversely affect wages or working conditions for comparable American workers.
It does not suspend the H-1B visa programme, cancel existing H-1B visas or revoke green cards that have already been issued. The immediate effect is to block an important route to permanent residence for affected employees whose employers are among the eight named companies.
Microsoft disputes the administration's comparison
Vance pointed to Microsoft's layoffs and its use of skilled-worker visas as evidence that the company should change its hiring practices. Microsoft said it looked forward to providing more information to the administration and maintained that it pays H-1B employees the same as other workers doing comparable jobs.
The company said about 80 percent of its roughly 6,000 H-1B filings in the previous fiscal year extended or changed the status of existing employees, rather than bringing in new hires. It said the remaining new-employee filings involved people already legally in the United States and represented about one percent of its US workforce.
A parallel inquiry reaches major universities
The administration also announced investigations into nine universities over alleged misuse of exchange-visitor visas to undercut US wages. Reuters reported that the institutions include Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and that the Labor Department's inspector general said subpoenas had been served.
The university inquiry is separate from the PERM suspension imposed on the technology companies. Together, the measures signal a broader escalation in federal scrutiny of the employment and education pathways used by foreign workers and students.
Sources
4 references
- ReutersTrump administration freezes green cards for Microsoft, IT firms, probes universitiesIndependent reporting, company response and details of the government action · 2026-10-08
- Associated PressMicrosoft being suspended from a green card program as Vance alleges fraudIndependent confirmation and immigration-policy context · 2026-10-08
- AxiosWhat happens to your green card, H-1B visa and PERM after Vance crackdownExplanation of the distinction between PERM and H-1B status · 2026-10-08
- U.S. Department of LaborPermanent Labor Certification ProgramPrimary program rules and process overview · 2026-10-08
