Legislative lowdown: Trump officials suspend Microsoft, Adobe from PERM program

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The Trump administration is cracking down on employers that use the Permanent Labor Certification program (PERM) to grant permanent residency to foreign workers on certain visas, including H-1B.

White House officials said they were suspending a half-dozen companies from participating in the PERM program at an Oct. 8 press conference. Microsoft and Adobe are among the firms impacted by the decision.

Vice President J.D. Vance and Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling claimed that these companies have used the PERM program to hire immigrant workers at a lower cost, passing over qualified American workers who could fill similar roles. Vance argued that foreign-born workers replaced American employees who were laid off by Microsoft, though he didn’t offer evidence to support this claim, the Washington Post reported.

“Our message to Microsoft is, you’re a great American company, but you’ve got to hire great American workers,” Vance said. “You cannot lay off American workers and then replace them with foreign indentured servants.”

How employers use the PERM program. In order to obtain PERM certification for their workers, employers must prove that there are no other US workers who are qualified and available to accept a permanent offer for the job in question, according to a 2023 explainer from the National Immigration Forum. Additionally, they must show that hiring a foreign worker “will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed US workers.”

H-1B visa-holders are the most likely candidates for PERM, government data suggest. The H-1B program is intended to help employers recruit highly skilled talent from other countries for jobs in STEM-related fields. During President Trump’s second term, however, the program has come under fire.

Tech firms like Amazon, Meta, and Apple have historically relied heavily on the H-1B program to source talent. During the first three quarters of this fiscal year, Microsoft submitted more PERM applications than any other US employer (roughly 1,500), according to a Business Insider analysis.

What this means for companies with PERM workers. In a statement provided to TechCrunch via email, Microsoft challenged the Trump administration’s assertion that it only recently hired H-1B workers to replace American employees it had laid off. Of the 6,000 H-1B visa applications Microsoft submitted in the last fiscal year, “80% percent were to extend or change the status of existing Microsoft employees,” the statement claimed.

“We believe in the strength and talent of the American workforce,” a Microsoft spokesperson told the outlet. “That is why the vast majority of Microsoft employees in the United States are Americans.”

Tata Consultancy Services, an Indian tech firm that was also affected by the PERM suspensions, said in a public filing that it won’t adjust its hiring plans as a result of these changes.

It’s worth noting this decision doesn’t affect employees’ H-1B status. It could, however, affect green card sponsorship in the future.

Affected HR teams should “separate the two risks,” Emanuela Prister, an immigration attorney based in North Carolina, wrote on LinkedIn. “Green card sponsorship is frozen for those employers. Employment authorization is not.”