Adobe, Microsoft amongst tech giants suspended from international visa program
The Trump administration introduced Thursday that a number of main tech corporations with Bay Area ties have been topic to a brand new crackdown on a visa program for expert international employees.
Bay Area-headquartered Adobe and Washington state-headquartered Microsoft, which has workplaces in San Francisco, Berkeley and Mountain View, have been among the many most notable corporations suspended from making use of for inexperienced card sponsorships by the permanent labor certification program, often called PERM. The program permits corporations to rent people who find themselves not U.S. residents to reside and work completely within the United States.
During a Thursday information convention, Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling alleged that corporations have been abusing the coverage, giving employees a direct path to citizenship whereas passing on American labor. PERM functions can take practically a 12 months to course of, in line with the Department of Labor.
The suspension additionally contains massive IT outsourcing corporations and consulting corporations Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini — all of which have no less than one workplace within the Bay Area. Sonderling mentioned within the announcement that any and all pending functions is not going to be processed.
Only one firm included within the freeze responded to a request for remark from SFGATE. Microsoft maintained in a statement that the “overwhelming majority” of its staff have been U.S. residents.
Reuters reported Thursday that Microsoft had the most important variety of PERM functions filed and authorised between June 2025 and June 2026 with 6,260, greater than double these of Cupertino-headquartered Apple, which had the second-most authorised functions at 2,676. Intel, Tata and Oracle adopted, with 2,409, 2,305, 2,224 authorised functions, respectively. During the identical information convention, Vice President JD Vance mentioned that no different firm “has abused the system” greater than Microsoft.
Vance additionally criticized the tech trade’s use of H-1B visas, which corporations use to fill high-skill positions with out giving recipients a definite path to everlasting residency. In its Thursday report, although, Reuters mentioned that Amazon really has filed for probably the most H-1B visas, practically tripling Microsoft’s numbers. Amazon was not included within the PERM suspension.
The Trump administration usually walks the road between badgering American tech corporations that prop up the U.S. economic landscape over their embrace of international labor and treating their leaders like royalty. That tightrope was on full show Thursday. Just hours after slamming Microsoft, President Donald Trump awarded CEO Satya Nadella the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
Trump referred to as Nadella a “key figure” in Microsoft’s historical past and praised his firm’s tech as “a number of the most succesful software program ever constructed.” Nadella thanked the president in an X submit, with out mentioning his firm’s suspension from PERM.
“I’m humbled to face alongside so many giants of American innovation and searching ahead for what we will proceed to do collectively to advance know-how and drive American prosperity,” Nadella said in a post.
Contact tech reporter Matthew Brown at [email protected] or matthewbrownsfgate.11 on Signal.
