US bars Microsoft, Adobe, and major IT firms from green card program for skilled foreign workers
- ID
- 33254
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 08 Oct 2026, 11:42 PM
- Fetched
- 09 Oct 2026, 12:15 AM
- Provider
- TechCrunch
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/08/us-bars-microsoft-adobe-and-major-it-firms-from-green-card-program-for-skilled-foreign-workers/
- Source URL
- https://techcrunch.com/feed/
Summary
- Score
- 5.5
- Created
- 09 Oct 2026, 12:16 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developerssaas_startup_founders
What happened
The Trump administration suspended Microsoft, Adobe, Capgemini, Cognizant, HCL, Infosys, Tata, and Wipro from the PERM program that sponsors skilled foreign workers for US green cards, accusing the companies of fraud. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said no new or pending permanent labor certification applications involving those firms will be accepted, and Vice President JD Vance said at a Thursday news conference that the message to Microsoft is 'you've got to hire great American workers.' Vance also said nine universities, including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, are under investigation over alleged abuse of the international-student program; AP reporting cited in the article says nearly three-quarters of approved H-1B visas go to workers from India.
Why it matters
If you or your team are planning a US relocation path through one of the named firms — or if your company subcontracts delivery to Infosys, Wipro, TCS, HCL, Cognizant, or Capgemini — the PERM pipeline for those employers is now closed for new and pending applications, so any green-card timeline attached to them is likely stalled and needs a plan B. For founders, the practical read is that US-based hiring gets harder and costlier for the roles these firms fill, which probably shifts more engineering and delivery work toward regional hubs in Southeast Asia; if you sell services or staff augmentation, that is an opportunity to price and position for, not just news to read.
Discussion angle
Does restricting US green-card sponsorship for the big IT services firms push more engineering and delivery work to Malaysian and Southeast Asian teams — and if so, which roles and which clients move first?