US Bars Microsoft From Green Card Program

Most workers in this process first arrive on an H-1B visa, a temporary permit for highly skilled specialists, capped at 85,000 new visas a year. Under PERM, an employer must obtain certification from the Department of Labor that no qualified American is available for the job, a step required before most work-based green cards, which let foreign workers live and work in the US permanently, can be granted. Vance argued that Microsoft had laid off about 6,000 American workers last year while seeking thousands of H-1B visas: 6,800 applications according to the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), or 6,300 visas according to the New York Post. He described the visa holders as "foreign indentured servants" because they must leave the country if they lose their jobs. Microsoft defended its hiring. It said 80% of its roughly 6,000 H-1B applications last year were for existing employees, that the new hires it sponsored equalled only 1% of its US workforce, and that visa holders are paid the same as American staff.

Officials called the suspension part of an effort to protect American white-collar jobs. Vance also announced investigations into nine universities, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford, over claims that they used international students to undercut American wages. Critics of the H-1B system argue that it allows companies to replace Americans with cheaper foreign labor. However, the BBC pointed out that Amazon, Google, Meta, Apple and Nvidia all hire through the same program, yet none of them were named. Last month, the government also proposed scrapping the 60-day grace period that visa holders receive after losing their jobs.