The front steps and entrance sign of the Frances Perkins Building, the US Department of Labor's headquarters on Constitution Avenue in Washington, under a blue sky · G. Edward Johnson, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0

Article · 2026-10-11 · 7 min read · Software and IT services · Stocks

Microsoft and Adobe suspended from green card sponsorship

On Thursday 8 October the Labor Department stopped taking and processing PERM labor certifications, the usual first step to an employer-sponsored green card, for Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini, alleging misuse; no end date was given, and Microsoft said 80 percent of its roughly 6,000 H-1B filings last fiscal year were for existing employees.

By the desk. Researched and written by an AI model from the sources listed at the end; nothing here restates another publication's text.

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What was announced

On Thursday 8 October, at a White House Fraud Task Force news conference led by Vice President JD Vance, Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini will no longer be able to submit new applications, or have pending ones processed, through the Permanent Labor Certification Program, known as PERM, according to The National News Desk. The process is generally an employer's first step in sponsoring a foreign worker for an employment-based green card, the permanent residency card. The Associated Press reported the action as a suspension of Microsoft from the program that lets companies apply for green cards for workers who came to the US on H-1B visas, the temporary visas for skilled jobs, and said the administration accuses the company of fraud. ^{[1, 2]}

The officials gave figures of their own. Sonderling said that since 2009 'just these companies alone have requested almost 3 million foreign workers', and claimed they received more than 230,000 H-1B approvals and more than 100,000 permanent labor certifications, The National News Desk reported. Vance said Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers last year while benefiting from 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards, the AP reported. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department is investigating companies that favor foreign workers over Americans, with possible criminal prosecutions or civil suits depending on the results. These are the administration's allegations; no charge against any of the eight companies was reported. ^{[1, 2]}

The same news conference opened investigations into the use of J-1 exchange visas at nine universities, among them Harvard, Yale, Stanford and MIT, and the Labor Department's inspector general announced a visa fraud strike team, according to The National News Desk. ^[1]

What PERM is and what a suspension stops

Under federal immigration law, certain foreign workers cannot get an immigrant visa for permanent work unless the Secretary of Labor first certifies two things: that there are not enough US workers able, willing, qualified and available for the job at that place, and that hiring the foreign worker will not hurt the wages and working conditions of similar US workers. That certification is the PERM labor certification. To get it, an employer generally tests the job market by recruiting first, as reported. Vance's complaint was about that test: he said some companies place job advertisements meant to draw no response and then cite the silence to hire a foreign worker, the AP reported. ^{[3, 2, 4]}

The certification is a gate, not the green card. For the main skilled categories, the employer then files Form I-140, the Petition for Immigrant Worker, with the immigration service, and the petition must come with the required labor certification. The worker's place in the queue for a green card, the priority date, is the date the Labor Department accepted the labor certification application. A stop at the Labor Department therefore holds up every later step for the workers those eight employers sponsor through PERM. ^[5]

What the stop does not reach, by the reports read: neither the AP nor The National News Desk says the eight companies' H-1B petitions were halted; the action as announced names the PERM program. The reports also do not say what happens to certifications already granted. ^{[1, 2]}

How long it lasts

Vance said the suspensions will remain in place 'as long as it needs to', and that the administration has tools to extend them indefinitely but wants the companies to change their hiring practices, The National News Desk reported. No end date was given. ^[1]

The Labor Department's own rule on suspected fraud sets a frame, though the reports read do not say which rule the department invoked. Under 20 CFR 656.31(b), when the department learns an employer is under investigation for possible fraud or willful misrepresentation in the PERM program, it may suspend processing of any labor certification application involving that employer until any investigation or court case ends, and must notify the employer in writing unless the investigators ask otherwise. Such a suspension 'may last initially for up to 180 days'; after that, if no indictment has been issued, the National Certifying Officer may resume processing or extend the suspension. The rule's text speaks of suspending processing; it does not mention refusing new filings. A separate step, debarment, bars an employer from the program for up to three years and requires a written notice stating the reasons. ^[3]

Thursday's action followed a narrower one. On Tuesday 8 September the Labor Department's inspector general, Anthony D'Esposito, announced that PERM filings by Cognizant and Cloudera had been suspended, PTI reported via Outlook India, as part of an investigation run with the White House Fraud Task Force that began in July. ^[4]

What the companies said

Microsoft said in a statement that the vast majority of its US employees are Americans, and that 'of the approximately 6,000 H-1B visa applications we submitted in the last fiscal year, 80 percent were to extend or change the status of existing Microsoft employees. These were not to hire new people.' The remaining filings, it said, were for people already legally in the US and 'equal only 1 percent of our U.S. workforce'. It said it pays H-1B employees the same as others doing comparable work and looks forward to giving the administration more information. Microsoft's 10-K for the year to 30 June 2026 counts about 121,000 full-time employees in the US, out of about 223,000 in all. By the desk's arithmetic, 20 percent of about 6,000 filings is about 1,200 people, which is about 1 percent of 121,000, matching the company's own figure. Vance's 6,300 and Microsoft's 6,000 count different things (visas the company benefited from, against applications it submitted) and are not reconciled in any source read. ^{[6, 2, 7]}

Tata Consultancy Services told the National Stock Exchange of India and BSE in a letter dated Friday 9 October that it 'will comply with any directive from the Department of Labor', that it intends to hire an additional 15,000 people in the US over the next five years, and that its PERM applications were 'in single digits in the last two years', so it does not expect the suspension to affect its US workforce strategy or its work for customers. The AP reported that Microsoft did not immediately respond on Thursday; no statement from Adobe, Infosys, Wipro, HCL, Capgemini or Cognizant was found in the sources read. ^{[8, 2]}

What settles it next

The written record is still to come. The rule that provides for such suspensions requires written notice to each employer unless the investigators ask otherwise, and sets a first review point no later than 180 days after a suspension begins, which for a suspension starting on Thursday 8 October falls in early April 2027 by the desk's count; the officials themselves gave no date. Any indictment, civil suit or debarment notice would be a public record of its own; Blanche said criminal and civil actions depend on the results of the investigations. ^{[3, 1]}

Who it reaches

Microsoft (MSFT) and Adobe (ADBE) are the two software makers on the list; Vance singled out Microsoft, and the sources read give no figures for Adobe. Cognizant (CTSH), Infosys (INFY) and Wipro (WIT) are the three outsourcers on the list with US-listed shares in the desk's universe. Cognizant's 10-K for 2025 counts about 351,600 employees, 41,600 of them in North America, and says its principal US operating subsidiary 'utilizes a high number of skilled workers holding H-1B and L-1 visas'. Infosys's 20-F for the year to 31 March 2026 says the Justice Department is investigating how it classified certain H-1B employees in immigration documents, a matter whose outcome it says it cannot predict. Tata Consultancy Services, HCL and Capgemini trade outside the US. ^{[1, 9, 10]}

Sources

Every stock is a company; the desk grades the company behind the stock. This article describes; it does not recommend. Adjacent means the company is not named in the event and the path by which it is reached is stated above.

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