Trump Administration Suspends Adobe and Microsoft from PERM Green Card Program Over H-1B Fraud Allegations

The Trump administration announced Thursday that it is suspending Adobe, Microsoft, and six major IT outsourcing firms from the PERM program, the federal labor certification process that serves as the first step for H-1B visa holders seeking permanent residency green cards. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling cited "multiple active federal investigations" into both Adobe and Microsoft specifically, while the broader group of suspended firms also includes Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini. The Labor Department said it will not accept any new or process any pending PERM applications from those companies.

Vice President JD Vance made the announcement at a White House briefing and singled out Microsoft as the worst offender, stating the company had abused the system more than any other U.S. firm. Vance accused the affected companies of laying off American workers and replacing them with lower-cost foreign labor on H-1B visas, characterizing the arrangement as a form of indentured servitude. Sonderling added that since 2009, the named companies collectively requested almost 3 million foreign workers, received over 230,000 H-1B approvals, and obtained over 100,000 permanent labor certifications, which he said represented hundreds of thousands of jobs taken from American workers.

The action against Adobe comes alongside existing investor concerns about the company's ability to navigate competitive pressure from artificial intelligence tools, which have weighed on its stock. The suspension from the PERM program adds a regulatory and reputational overhang to a company already under scrutiny, and the White House made clear that the crackdown extends beyond tech firms, with Trump's fraud task force also announcing investigations into nine universities including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford over alleged J-1 visa fraud.