US Suspends Microsoft, Adobe and Six IT Outsourcers From Green-Card Labor Certification Over Alleged Visa Abuse

The Trump administration on October 8, 2026 suspended MSFT, ADBE and six large IT services firms, CTSH, INFY, Tata, WIT, HCL and Capgemini, from the Permanent Labor Certification Program, known as PERM, the labor-market test employers must pass before sponsoring a worker for a green card. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said the government will not accept new or pending PERM applications from the eight companies, and cited multiple active federal investigations. Officials gave no end date; Vance said the suspension would last as long as it needs to.

Vice President JD Vance framed the action as a crackdown on visa fraud, saying no U.S. company had abused the system more than Microsoft. He said Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers last year while benefiting from 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards. Microsoft responded that about 80% of the roughly 6,000 H-1B applications it filed last fiscal year were to extend or change the status of existing employees, that new H-1B hires equal about 1% of its U.S. workforce, and that it pays H-1B staff the same as others doing comparable work. Attorney General Todd Blanche separately announced Justice Department investigations, and officials opened a probe into J-1 programs at nine universities including Harvard, Yale and Stanford.

The suspension follows a September 8 action against Cognizant and Cloudera, the first PERM enforcement cases, and widens the administration's scrutiny of the IT outsourcing model that relies on skilled-visa pipelines. Existing H-1B visas are not affected. Market reaction was mixed in early reports: Investing.com said Microsoft fell 1.7% while Cognizant rose 2.4%, Adobe gained 1% and Infosys slipped 0.8%.

What to watch: whether the companies challenge the suspension, how the Labor Department treats pending cases already in the queue, and whether the action spreads to other large H-1B sponsors.