US halts permanent residency applications for Microsoft, Infosys, others over fraud claims

The Trump administration froze some green-card filings by Microsoft, Adobe and major IT outsourcers on Thursday, and opened probes into nine top universities, in what it described as a widening crackdown on visa fraud, Reuters reports.

Vice President JD Vance said Microsoft had “abused the system more than” any other US company, noting it laid off 6,000 American workers last year while benefiting from 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards. The announcement on the PERM certification process came hours before Trump was due to award Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Microsoft said about 80% of its recent H-1B applications were to extend status for current employees, not hire new workers.

Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said the suspension also covers Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini, noting these companies had sought almost three million foreign workers since 2009 and received over 230,000 H-1B approvals. Vance said the suspensions would last “as long as it needs to,” accusing some firms of posting ineffective job ads to justify hiring lower-paid foreign workers.

Separately, Vance announced investigations into nine universities, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown and MIT, over alleged misuse of exchange-visitor visas, with subpoenas already served. Labor Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito said investigators would examine possible foreign influence and visa abuse in federally funded research.

Sarah Spreitzer of the American Council on Education warned the probe could have major economic implications, noting international students contribute roughly $40 billion annually to the US economy.