Trump Administration Suspends Microsoft From Green Card Program Over Fraud Claims
The Trump administration suspended Microsoft from the PERM green card program, accusing it of fraud. Vance cited 6,000 layoffs against 6,300 H-1B visas.
Microsoft cut off from green card sponsorship
The Trump administration is suspending Microsoft from the federal program companies use to sponsor green cards for workers on H-1B visas, accusing the tech giant of fraud.
Vice President JD Vance announced the decision at a White House news conference on October 8. The suspension targets the PERM permanent labor certification process, which lets companies sponsor foreign workers for permanent residency after showing no qualified Americans are available.
The White House's case against Microsoft
"There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has abused the system more than Microsoft," Vance said.
He said Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers last year while benefiting from 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards. Vance argued the company was replacing domestic employees with lower-paid foreign workers.
"If you do the math, for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants," Vance said.
Microsoft is the fifth-largest user of H-1B visas in the country, with 3,688 approvals in the first nine months of the 2026 fiscal year, and has used nearly 54,000 over the last decade.
Microsoft's response
Microsoft said 80% of its roughly 6,000 H-1B applications last fiscal year were to extend or change the status of people already working at the company, not new arrivals. The rest went to new hires already living legally in the United States.
The company said it pays H-1B workers the same as comparable American employees and that its wages rank among the highest of all H-1B filings. It said it looks forward to providing the administration with additional information.
The timing was striking: the announcement came hours before President Trump awarded Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the National Medal of Technology and Innovation at a White House ceremony.
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Options market and stocks to watch
MSFT is the largest filer of PERM applications in the United States, so losing access to the program strikes at a core talent pipeline. If the suspension extends beyond a headline, expect sustained headline volatility and potential put buying around key immigration-policy dates.
The action is part of a broader campaign that also hit Adobe and six IT outsourcers, plus a proposed $100,000 H-1B fee. Staffing and outsourcing names like CTSH and INFY carry direct exposure to any further tightening.
For the mega-cap tech trade, this adds a political risk premium on top of existing AI-capex debates. Watch unusual call and put flow in MSFT weekly expiries for how traders are pricing the next headline. More coverage on the Unusual Whales news feed.
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