The US Department of Labor announced it would suspend Microsoft And Adobe of its permanent labor certification program on Thursday, Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said, as the Trump administration continues to take aim at immigration and overseas hiring programs ahead of the November midterm elections.
Sonderling said the Labor Ministry would not accept or process any new applications under the program for a host of companies, including Cognizant, Infosys, Capgemini, Tata, Wipro and HCL.
The secretary said Adobe and Microsoft were also suspended “due to several active federal investigations.”
“Since 2009, these companies alone have applied for nearly 3 million foreign workers. They have received more than 230,000 H-1B visas and more than 100,000 permanent employment certifications. That’s hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been lost to American workers,” Sonderling said.
Vice President JD Vance specifically criticized Microsoft, pointing to the company’s 6,000 layoffs in 2025. Vance claimed the company had “replaced” those workers with people on H-1B visas.
“So we’re going to continue to support Microsoft and have a great relationship with Microsoft, but we’re also going to deny them the opportunity to apply for these permanent residencies until they show that they’re going to seriously prioritize American workers,” Vance said.
President Donald Trump is set to award the National Medal of Science to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and other top tech CEOs on Thursday at the same summit where the suspension announcement was made.
Nadella is originally from India and moved to the United States in 1988. He joined Microsoft in 1992.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, EspaceXAI CEO Elon Musk and Advanced microdevices CEO Lisa Su is also honored during Thursday’s medal ceremony. Each of the leaders immigrated to the United States, Musk was born in South Africa and Su and Huang were born in Taiwan.
“It’s one thing if you want to bring in a person like Elon Musk,” Vance said. “I think 99% of American citizens look at someone like Elon Musk or Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD, and they say, obviously, if this person wants to come and build something big in the United States of America, we support them.”
CNBC has contacted Microsoft and Adobe for comment.
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