No, Microsoft wasn't banned from H-1B visas. Here's what the green card suspension actually does
The Trump administration suspended Microsoft, Adobe and six IT firms from sponsoring foreign workers for green cards, not from the H-1B program itself.
The Trump administration suspended Microsoft, Adobe and six IT firms from sponsoring foreign workers for green cards, not from the H-1B program itself.
Vice President JD Vance announced Thursday that Microsoft is being suspended from a federal program that lets companies sponsor foreign workers for permanent residency, known as green cards, according to the Associated Press.
Some posts online described the move as Microsoft being kicked out of the H-1B visa program. That isn't what was announced. The action targets green card sponsorship, the step that lets a worker who is already in the U.S. on a temporary H-1B visa stay permanently.
## What was announced
Vance said the green card program requires companies to advertise jobs to Americans before applying to the Labor Department to show they need a foreign worker, AP reported. He said companies use the lack of responses to those ads to justify hiring foreign workers instead of Americans.
Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said the suspension also applies to Adobe and to six IT services firms: Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini, according to Forbes.
Vance also said nine universities, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford, will be investigated over their use of J-1 exchange visas, Forbes reported.
## The administration's argument
Vance said Microsoft has used the green card system more than any other U.S. company, AP reported. He said Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers last year while obtaining 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards. By his math, that is about one and a half foreign workers for each laid-off American.
"Our message to Microsoft is: You're a great American company, but you've got to hire great American workers," Vance said, according to AP. He called the H-1B program "rife with fraud," Forbes reported, and described H-1B workers as "foreign indentured servants" because they must leave the country if they lose their jobs.
## What we don't know yet
Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment from AP and Forbes.
Neither AP nor Forbes reported how long the suspension will last or whether it affects green card applications already filed.
## The numbers in context
Technology companies are the biggest users of H-1B visas, and nearly three-quarters of approvals go to workers from India, according to AP.
Vance's figures are his own and compare different categories. Layoffs, new H-1B visas and green cards cover different jobs, different workers and possibly different time periods, so the "one and a half" ratio does not show that any specific American worker was replaced by a specific foreign worker.
Separately, a $100,000 fee on new H-1B petitions, set by a 2025 presidential proclamation, is being held up in court, Forbes reported.
## What it means for you
If you are an American student or early-career worker in tech, the administration argues this pushes big employers to hire and train more U.S. workers.
If you are an international student or an H-1B worker hoping to stay in the U.S., the practical change is that these eight companies can't sponsor new green cards for now. Neither AP nor Forbes reported any change to existing H-1B visas. If you work for one of these companies, talk to your employer's immigration team or an immigration attorney before making plans.