According to Reuters and the U.S. Consumer News & Business Channel (CNBC), on October 8 local time, the U.S. government announced that it would suspend participation in a key green card program—the 'Permanent Labor Certification'—for companies like Microsoft. Additionally, investigations are being conducted against nine universities in the United States for suspected fraud related to J-1 visas, which are for exchange visiting scholars.
Reports indicate that since taking office, U.S. President Donald Trump has been working to reduce the number of foreign-born people in the United States and limit their access to residency permits and citizenship. The two measures introduced on August 8 represent the most extensive crackdown on the skilled worker immigration program to date. This move may cut off a common pathway for foreign tech workers to obtain permanent residency.
On October 8th, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that it would suspend Microsoft and Adobe from participating in the “Permanent Labor Certification” program.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Sunderlin stated that large tech companies such as Google and Inditex will be temporarily barred from participating in the program to apply for green cards for their employees. “We will not accept any new permanent employment certification applications submitted by these companies, nor will we process their pending related applications.”
American Vice President Viscer criticizes Microsoft. "Unfortunately, in the United States, no company has abused this system more than Microsoft," he said. He mentioned that the company will lay off 6,000 local American employees in 2025 and replace them with people holding H-1B temporary work visas.
On October 8th, Vance gave a speech. Screenshot of Reuters video
Therefore, we will continue to support Microsoft and maintain a good relationship with them, but we will not allow them to apply for permanent residency rights until they demonstrate that they prioritize American workers first. Monsoon said.
According to data from the U.S. Department of Labor, Microsoft is the company that has submitted the most applications for permanent labor certification. Under the “Permanent Labor Certification” program, employers must prove that hiring foreign workers does not harm the wages and job opportunities of American workers.
Microsoft stated in a statement on the 8th that approximately 80% of the H-1B applications submitted in the last fiscal year were for extending or changing the status of existing employees, rather than hiring new employees.
The statement also indicated that the majority of the company’s employees in the United States are Americans.
According to reports, a few hours after Vance made the above remarks, Trump honored several technology executives, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Nadella had held an H-1B visa, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who was also honored that day, also held this visa. In addition, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, AMD CEO Lisa Su, and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who were honored that day, are also immigrants.
"If you want to invite people like Musk to come, it's a different story," Vance said that day. "I think 99% of American citizens who see someone like Musk or Su Zifeng would say, 'If such a person wants to come and build a great project, we are obviously supportive.'"
According to reports, on October 8th, Vance also stated that nine universities, including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, would be investigated. The government believes these universities have abused J-1 visas to lower salaries in the United States.
U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General Anthony DeSisto said that investigators will examine whether there are any foreign influences, improper financial relationships, or visa abuse practices that could endanger federal-funded research projects.
"The Vice President of the American Education Commission, Sarah Spresser, stated that this could have a significant impact on the entire US economy. She pointed out that historically, international students annually spend around $40 billion in the United States."
Reuters noted that this investigation has deepened the long-standing conflict between the Trump administration and Harvard University regarding international students. In 2025, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued an administrative subpoena to Harvard demanding information on international students. Harvard described this subpoena as “baseless retaliation”.
