The Trump administration suspended eight technology companies from sponsoring foreign workers for green cards on Thursday, with Vice President JD Vance claiming Microsoft replaced 6,000 laid-off workers with H-1B visa holders. The suspension targets the Labor Department's PERM program for permanent residency but does not affect H-1B temporary work permits.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data shows Microsoft received 6,258 H-1B approvals in fiscal 2025, making it the third-largest sponsor after Amazon (19,178 approvals) and Meta (6,294 approvals). Neither Amazon nor Meta faced suspension despite their larger H-1B footprints.
Vance's claim about Microsoft's replacements warrants scrutiny. Two-thirds of Microsoft's H-1B approvals went to workers already employed at the company, according to USCIS data. Amazon, by contrast, brought in nearly four times as many H-1B workers new to the company but was not suspended. The eight companies targeted rank among the nation's top 50 H-1B sponsors, with most being IT services and consulting firms. Adobe ranks smallest at number 45.
The suspension announcement came alongside a Labor Department investigation into alleged J-1 visa fraud at nine major American universities, announced by the Labor Department's inspector general, Anthony D'Esposito. Trump administration officials have argued that visa programs undercut American workers by incentivizing offshore hiring.
Microsoft historically out-sponsored Amazon for H-1B approvals, but Amazon surpassed Microsoft in 2017 and now receives approximately three times as many approvals annually. The gap highlights different hiring strategies among major tech employers, though the data alone does not confirm whether Microsoft's layoffs and H-1B approvals are directly connected or whether the company was hiring replacements versus retaining existing visa workers.