US freezes green-card filings by Microsoft and Indian IT giants

The Trump administration on Thursday froze green-card filings by Microsoft, Adobe and several major IT outsourcing firms, and opened investigations into nine elite universities, widening a crackdown on skilled-worker visas that it says targets fraud and the loss of American jobs.

“Our message to Microsoft is: You’re a great American company, but you’ve got to hire great American workers,” Vice President JD Vance said at a White House briefing. “There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has abused this system more than Microsoft.”

Who is affected

Labour Secretary Keith Sonderling said some of the world’s largest IT firms would also be suspended from the programme, including:

• Cognizant
• Infosys
• Tata Consultancy Services
• Wipro
• HCL
• Capgemini

“We will not accept any new or process any pending permanent labour certification applications involving these companies,” Sonderling said.

Sonderling cited “multiple active federal investigations” into Microsoft and Adobe, Geo News reported, and claimed the two had requested nearly 3 million foreign workers since 2009. Vance pointed to Microsoft’s 6,000 layoffs in 2025 and accused it of replacing American workers with H-1B visa holders.

Microsoft, Adobe and the IT firms did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while Tata Consultancy Services declined to comment, Dawn reported.

What the freeze means

The suspension covers the Labour Department’s permanent labour certification process, known as PERM, which is required for most employment-based green cards. Under it, employers must show that hiring a foreign worker will not harm the wages, jobs or working conditions of US workers.

The freeze does not appear to affect people who already hold H-1B visas, which let companies employ foreign workers temporarily. But it could block a common route by which employers sponsor those workers for permanent residency.

Indian IT firms such as Infosys, TCS, Wipro and HCL, along with Cognizant, have long been among the biggest users of H-1B visas. Amazon was the largest employer of approved H-1B workers in fiscal 2026, followed by TCS, Infosys, Apple and Microsoft, according to official data.

Universities under investigation

Vance said nine universities, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, would be investigated for allegedly using J-1 exchange visas to bring in international students and undercut American wages. Labour Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito said subpoenas had already been served.

“If an American university is breaking the law to save $1 while exposing American research to a foreign adversary, that is not academic excellence. It’s institutional betrayal,” he said.

Medals for tech leaders on the same day

The crackdown came on the day President Donald Trump was set to award the National Medal of Science to tech leaders including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and SpaceX’s Elon Musk. Vance distinguished between “extraordinary” immigrants who “build something great” and what he called systemic abuse.

A financial disclosure released on Thursday showed Trump bought as much as $1.6 million and sold as much as $1 million in Nvidia stock in August, The Express Tribune reported, citing Reuters. A White House spokesperson said the president’s portfolio is managed independently and that “there are no conflicts of interest”.

Why it matters

The move is the broadest yet against skilled-worker immigration under Trump’s second term, following a one-time $100,000 fee on new H-1B petitions imposed last September. It could block a common path to permanent residency for thousands of foreign tech workers.

This article draws on reporting by Dawn, The Express Tribune and Geo News.