US suspends Microsoft, Adobe, and five IT outsourcing firms from green card program over fraud claims

The Trump administration announced on October 8 that it is suspending Microsoft, Adobe, and six IT outsourcing firms — Capgemini, Cognizant, HCL, Infosys, Tata, and Wipro — from a federal program that helps skilled foreign workers obtain permanent residency, accusing the companies of fraud. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said the government will not accept any new or pending permanent labor certification applications tied to the listed companies.

The announcement came at a news conference where Vice President JD Vance framed the move around domestic hiring priorities rather than strictly as a fraud enforcement action. "Our message to Microsoft is: You're a great American company, but you've got to hire great American workers," Vance said.

Who's affected and how

The suspension targets permanent labor certification, the step that underlies a green card sponsorship, distinct from the H-1B visa process that initially brings many of these workers into the country. The list mixes two very different kinds of companies: Microsoft and Adobe hire H-1B workers directly into engineering and product roles, while Capgemini, Cognizant, HCL, Infosys, Tata, and Wipro are IT services and outsourcing firms that place workers at client companies across the economy. Grouping them together under one enforcement action suggests the administration is targeting a sponsorship pipeline pattern it considers abusive across both employment models, not a single company's specific practice.

According to the Associated Press, nearly three-quarters of approved H-1B visas go to workers from India, and tech companies are among the program's largest users — context that makes this suspension land squarely on the segment of the workforce the visa system was built around.

A broader push beyond this list

Vance also said the administration will investigate nine universities, including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, over alleged abuse of a program for international students that he said has been used to undermine American workers' wages. Pairing the corporate suspension with a university investigation signals this is part of a coordinated push on skilled-worker immigration pathways generally, not an isolated action against eight companies.

What happens next

Neither Microsoft nor Adobe immediately responded to requests for comment, and the administration hasn't specified an effective date or a process for the suspended companies to contest the fraud allegations or get reinstated. For the affected firms, the immediate practical effect is that any employee whose path to permanent residency runs through a pending or future labor certification filed by these companies is now stalled, with no timeline for resolution. The larger question — whether this becomes a template for suspending other major tech employers from the program, or a one-time enforcement action against these eight — depends on whether the administration follows through on investigations rather than just announcements.