Vice President Vance announced Thursday that Microsoft has been suspended from the federal PERM permanent labor certification program, barring its foreign workers from applying for employer-sponsored green cards after the administration accused the company of abusing the process.
Vice President JD Vance announced Thursday that Microsoft has been suspended from the federal PERM program — a permanent labor certification process that allows U.S. employers to sponsor foreign workers for permanent resident status — after accusing the company of abusing the system.
The suspension bars foreign workers employed at Microsoft from applying for green cards through the employer-based program, at least for the time being.
Vance made the announcement on the same day that President Trump hosted a "A New Golden Age" summit in Washington, where he awarded the National Medal of Science to several prominent technology leaders, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and AMD CEO Lisa Su.
The PERM program, administered by the Department of Labor, is one of the primary pathways through which technology companies retain highly skilled foreign nationals in the United States. Employers must demonstrate through the process that no qualified American workers are available to fill a given role before a foreign employee can be sponsored for permanent residency.
By suspending Microsoft from the program, the administration effectively halts a key immigration pipeline for one of the country's largest employers of technical talent. Microsoft employs tens of thousands of workers in the United States, a significant portion of whom hold work visas and rely on employer sponsorship for long-term immigration status.
The move comes amid broader tension between the Trump administration and large technology companies over hiring practices and immigration policy. The administration has repeatedly criticized H-1B visa programs and related pathways, arguing they disadvantage American workers — even as some officials and allies in the technology industry have defended the programs as essential to maintaining U.S. competitiveness.
The juxtaposition of the PERM suspension with the same-day Medal of Science ceremony underscores the administration's complicated relationship with the tech sector: publicly honoring its leaders while simultaneously applying regulatory and immigration pressure on their companies.
Microsoft has not publicly responded to the suspension announcement. It remains unclear how long the suspension will remain in effect or whether the company can contest the designation through the Department of Labor's administrative process.
The action signals that the administration is prepared to use executive-branch tools beyond legislation to reshape how major technology employers recruit and retain foreign talent, raising questions about what similar interventions could follow for other large firms in the sector.
TechEchelon Staff bylines are produced collectively by the newsroom for short, breaking, and wire-style coverage. Longer-form reporting is published under the responsible reporter's name.
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