US freezes green-card route for Microsoft, IT outsourcers

US officials halted a green-card pathway for Microsoft and seven other companies on October 8, widening scrutiny of skilled-worker immigration.

Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said the department would neither accept further permanent labor certification filings nor advance those already awaiting decisions from the affected employers. The October 8, 2026, announcement accompanied investigations into nine universities, extending the administration’s immigration enforcement effort across corporate hiring and academic research.

The corporate restrictions cover Adobe alongside Microsoft, plus Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini. Vice President JD Vance gave no fixed expiration date and said the administration sought changes to employers’ recruitment practices.

Microsoft challenges administration’s hiring claims

Vance accused Microsoft of abusing immigration programs, citing 6,000 American job cuts last year alongside 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards. Those figures were presented by Vance; they do not establish that individual foreign employees replaced the workers whose positions were eliminated.

Microsoft said roughly 80% of its H-1B filings during the previous fiscal year concerned extensions or status changes for existing staff rather than recruitment. It also disputed the administration’s wage framing, saying employees holding those visas receive equivalent compensation for comparable work.

The distinction between temporary visas and permanent residence matters here. H-1B provides temporary work authorization, while PERM, the permanent labor certification process targeted by the suspension, is required for most employer-sponsored green cards.

Employers using PERM must demonstrate that employing a foreign worker would not disadvantage US workers through reduced wages or employment opportunities. Labor Department figures identify Microsoft as the leading applicant under that process, placing its workforce planning directly within the suspension’s scope.

Nine universities face visa investigations

Vance separately announced investigations concerning exchange-visitor visas at nine universities, naming Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology among them. Labor Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito said the institutions had received subpoenas.

The administration alleged that misuse of those visas depressed American pay. D'Esposito said investigators would assess whether visa violations, inappropriate financial ties or foreign influence threatened research supported by federal funding; those subjects remain investigative allegations, not established findings.

Harvard was already contesting immigration scrutiny before this announcement. The Department of Homeland Security subpoenaed it last year concerning alleged international-student misconduct and immigration compliance; Harvard characterized that action as retaliation while committing to meet its legal obligations.

Earlier enforcement sets the policy context

The actions follow the Labor Department’s September 2025 launch of Project Firewall. That month, a White House proclamation introduced a $100,000 charge on new H-1B petitions involving recruits coming from overseas, adding a hiring cost alongside the enforcement campaign.

Nasscom, the Indian technology industry association, disputed the suggestion that its members remained heavily dependent on this recruitment channel. It said Indian technology businesses operating in America had reduced H-1B reliance and that only a small share of their employees pursued residence through PERM.

If the suspension persists, Microsoft would face continued delays in this route to permanent residence for employees, while affected outsourcing firms would confront the same processing barrier. If those constraints alter where companies place work, the consequences could extend from individual staffing decisions to cross-border technology-service activity; the material supplies no estimate of that exposure.

If employers change recruitment procedures and officials restore processing, that particular barrier would ease, although Vance specified no reinstatement criteria. For universities, the next substantive developments are the investigations’ findings and any resulting restrictions; an inquiry alone establishes neither misconduct nor a measurable loss to research or the economy.