US suspends Microsoft, Adobe, others from green card program, cites abuse

Investing.com -- The U.S. government suspended Microsoft and Adobe from a program that allows skilled foreign workers to gain permanent residency, Vice President JD Vance announced Thursday.

Vance said the federal government was suspending Microsoft from the PERM program, which enables companies to apply for green cards for H-1B visa workers, citing alleged fraud.

"The message to Microsoft is you've got to hire American workers," Vance said.

Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling added that the department is suspending multiple major IT firms from the Permanent Labor Certification Program. "I am hereby suspending from the Permanent Labor Certification Program some of the largest IT outsourcing firms in the world — Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini — and also, due to multiple active federal investigations, @USDOL is suspending Microsoft and Adobe from the program," Sonderling said.

Vance said the U.S. is reforming H-1B and J-1 visa programs.

The Labor Department also announced an investigation into nine major American universities over J-1 visas, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown and MIT. A Labor Department official said subpoenas have been served to universities over J-1 visas.

Attorney General Blanche said the Justice Department is investigating companies that favor foreign workers over American people.

Microsoft shares traded roughly 0.2% higher Thursday. Adobe was up 0.4%. Cognizant lost about 0.7%, InfoSys was down 2.2%.

Original Article

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