US suspends Microsoft and Adobe from visa programme amid fraud claims

The United States government is suspending several major tech companies, including Adobe and Microsoft, from a programme that gives skilled foreign workers a path to permanent residency amid allegations of fraud.

The move comes as the White House ramps up pressure on companies to hire more Americans. “Our message to Microsoft is: You’re a great American company, but you’ve got to hire great American workers,” US Vice President JD Vance said at a news conference on Thursday.

Vance claimed that the Redmond, Washington-based tech giant laid off 6,000 American workers while obtaining 6,300 H-1B foreign work visas and almost 3,000 permanent residencies known as green cards.

“You cannot lay off American workers and replace them with foreign indentured servants,” Vance said.

Across the technology sector, there have been more than 131,000 layoffs in 2026 alone, according to Layoffs.fyi, which tracks job cuts across the tech and startup industries.

“When someone comes in, they are completely subordinate to that company. If they lose that job, they have to leave the country.”

Microsoft pushed back on Vance’s claims in a blog post, saying that “80 percent of the visas were to extend or change the status of existing Microsoft employees.”

“The remaining filings for new employees were for individuals already legally in the United States who decided to come work for us, and they equal only 1% of our U.S. workforce. They are not new arrivals to our country,” the company said in the post.

Microsoft is No 5 among US employers when it comes to using H-1B visas, according to data from US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Amazon is No 1.

Adobe did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling also said that several major information technology firms will be suspended from the programme as well. Among them are Indian tech giants Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services.

The H-1B programme has long been a target of supporters of US President Donald Trump who say that the programme undercuts American workers and is rife with abuse.

H-1B visas are meant for high-skilled jobs that are difficult to find US workers to fill. Technology companies are the biggest users, with nearly three-quarters of approvals going to workers from India.

The Department of Labor also said it had uncovered $22bn worth of visa fraud.

“Today we are protecting something far more valuable than any dollar amount. We are protecting the American worker,” Sonderling said.

The news came hours before Trump was to honour Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. India-born Nadella was one of six business leaders to be awarded on Thursday. Five of the leaders were foreign-born, including Tesla boss Elon Musk and Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Crackdown on universities

During the news conference, officials also announced a crackdown on alleged J-1 visa fraud involving nine universities, including MIT, Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Cal State, amid allegations that they brought in international students to undercut US wages. A J-1 visa allows foreign nationals to enter the US temporarily for education or cultural programmes. Universities use these visas to bring in international PhD candidates or scholars.

Vance claimed that when schools employ an American as a researcher, that person earns $20,000 more than someone brought in under a J-1 visa.

Al Jazeera asked for data supporting this claim, but the White House did not respond.

Microsoft’s stock slumped 1.5 percent on the heels of the news, while Adobe was up 2.1 percent in late day trading on Thursday.