From Business Insider · Truman Dickerson · · 2m
Microsoft workers face green card limbo after visa ban
The Trump administration suspended Microsoft, Adobe and other tech firms from a federal visa sponsorship program, leaving H-1B workers uncertain about their immigration status.
In brief
The Trump administration suspended Microsoft, Adobe and other tech firms from a federal visa sponsorship program, leaving H-1B workers uncertain about their immigration status. The Trump administration suspended Microsoft, Adobe and six other tech companies from the PERM visa sponsorship program, leaving H-1B workers…
Trump administration suspends tech firms
The Trump administration suspended Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini from the federal PERM visa sponsorship program on Thursday.
H-1B workers urged to seek legal advice
Immigration attorneys told Business Insider that employees on H-1B visas at the suspended companies should seek counsel and get clarity about their immigration status immediately.
Vance accuses Microsoft of visa abuse
Vice President JD Vance said Microsoft abused the PERM system by laying off American workers and using it to hire foreign workers paid less.
“If you do the math, for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants.”
Microsoft denies paying workers less
Microsoft said the vast majority of its US employees are Americans and that it pays H-1B employees the same as any other employees doing comparable work.
No new PERM applications will be processed
Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said the government would not accept any new PERM applications or process any pending ones for the named companies, leaving H-1B workers in legal limbo.
Workers may face removal if visas expire
Matthew Maiona, an immigration attorney at Maiona Ward in Boston, said H-1B workers could theoretically be ordered to appear in immigration court if they exhaust their visa eligibility and cannot secure another legal basis to…
“You may have to leave the United States.”
Attorneys expect legal challenges to suspension
Immigration attorneys said they expected the Trump administration's move to be challenged in court, arguing the suspensions exceed the Labor Department's legal authority, which federal statute limits to one hundred eighty day suspensions.
“I assume, by next week, we will start seeing lawsuits.”
Workers face impossible choices ahead
Kripa Upadhyay, co-chair of Buchalter's Immigration and Global Mobility Practice, described a Microsoft employee on H-1B whose spouse also held an H-1B visa and faced the impossible decision of moving to their home country or…
“I have children to support. What happens now?”
The bottom line
The Trump administration suspended Microsoft, Adobe and six other tech companies from the PERM visa sponsorship program, leaving H-1B workers in legal uncertainty and prompting immigration attorneys to advise affected employees to seek counsel immediately.
