US suspends Microsoft from Green Card sponsorship programme; company responds: Microsoft only files H-1B petitions for those who…

The US government has suspended Microsoft from the Permanent Labor Certification Program (PERM), the process most employers must clear before sponsoring a foreign worker for a Green Card. Vice President JD Vance and Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling announced the move at a press conference in Washington on October 8, and the Labor Department will now neither accept new PERM applications from Microsoft nor process the ones already pending.

Vance singled out the company as the worst offender. “There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has abused the system more than Microsoft,” he said, claiming Microsoft laid off around 6,000 American workers last year while employing 6,300 people on H-1B visas and securing nearly 3,000 Green Cards.