On October 8, the Trump administration formally suspended Microsoft, Adobe, and several other major IT companies from participating in a green card program designed to help foreign tech workers obtain US permanent residency, and accused the companies involved of fraudulent conduct.
US Labor Secretary Keith Sundling explicitly stated that the government will no longer accept any new or pending permanent labor certification applications involving these companies. Companies affected also include well-known services and tech giants such as Capgemini, Cognizant, HCL, Infosys, Tata Group, and Wipro.
US Vice President JD Vance emphasized at a press conference that companies must prioritize hiring local American workers, while also revealing that the government will launch investigations into nine prestigious universities, including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, to examine whether they have abused international student programs and used them to depress local workers' wages.
As one of the largest user groups of H-1B visas and subsequent green card conversions, nearly three-quarters of the tech industry's approved visas go to Indian professional technical talent. Facing the administrative intervention, Microsoft quickly responded by pointing out that the vast majority of its employees are Americans, and that of the approximately 6,000 H-1B applications it submitted in the last fiscal year, as high as 80% were used only for status extensions or changes for existing employees, rather than recruiting new hires; applications for remaining new employees accounted for only 1% of its total US workforce, and all met strict visa standards and received equal pay for equal work.
As the global battle for AI and hard-tech talent enters a white-hot stage, the US tightening of tech immigration channels for top IT companies may reshape global mobility trends for high-tech talent and have profound implications for the building of core R&D teams at major tech companies.