Microsoft fires back at White House claims it replaced thousands of American workers with foreign hires amid new green card ban

Microsoft is responding to accusations by US Vice President JD Vance on Thursday that the tech giant and seven other companies have been putting profits over American workers – replacing laid-off employees with foreign hires. All eight companies have now been banned from the federal green card labor certification program.

Vance says that after tracking the number of H‑1B and J‑1 visas issued to big tech companies, the administration uncovered a broken system “rife with fraud” – calling Microsoft one of the biggest offenders.

In the last year, the company laid off 6,000 American workers while benefiting from 6,300 H‑1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards.

For every American worker laid off, Microsoft replaced them with 1.5 foreign workers.

US Vice president JD Vance said.

.@VP: undefinedThe H1-B visa program is meant to allow companies to bring in really the best of the best from outside the United States of America for positions that are completely impossible to fill with American workers. Unfortunately, the program has become rife with fraud.undefined https://t.co/zxaI8YYykU

undefined Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 8, 2026

Microsoft, in a blog post responding to the allegations, pushed back, arguing it only files H-1B petitions for those who meet the rigorous standards of this visa category and pays foreign workers the same as American employees in comparable roles.

The company also said it looks forward to “providing the Administration with additional information.”

We pay our H-1B employees the same as any other employees doing comparable work,

Microsoft responded to the allegations.

Microsoft, Adobe among eight companies hit with green card ban

The two programs at the center of the fraud include the H-1B visa program, which companies use to bring in foreign workers – and the Permanent Labor Certification Program (PERM), which allows those foreign workers to apply for US permanent residency, Vance said during the 44-minute press conference announcing the blocks Thursday.

And apparently, it's not just Microsoft getting the boot from PERM; US Deputy Secretary of Labor Daniel Sonderling rattled off a list of seven other tech giants also accused of gaming the system at the expense of American workers.

"I am hereby suspending from the Permanent Labor Certification Program some of the largest IT outsourcing firms in the world,” Sonderling said, naming:

• Microsoft
• Adobe
• Cognizant
• Infosys
• Tata Consultancy Services
• Wipro
• HCL
• Capgemini

The companies listed above will no longer be able to apply for permanent residency for their H‑1B workers, and all pending applications will no longer be processed.

Sonderling added that his department has launched multiple active federal investigations targeting both Microsoft and Adobe.

Microsoft accused of replacing laid-off US workers with foreign hires

In the last few months alone, the Vance-led anti‑fraud task force uncovered about $20 billion in fraud and secured over 200 convictions relating to the green card programs.

Vance described a common scenario in which companies, using the H‑1B program, bring foreign workers to the US for positions that allegedly “cannot be filled by American workers.”

Once in the US, the workers are said to have full labor rights but are often mistreated and used to undercut wages.

Companies and foreign corporations exploit the system by advertising positions that no one applies for, then replacing American workers with foreign workers who are effectively indentured servants,

US Vice President JD Vance said.

Using Microsoft as the golden example, Vance laid out the numbers.

Microsoft fired 6,000 American workers in 2025. At the same time, Microsoft was approved for more than 6,000 H-1B visas.

Furthermore, the tech behemoth also filed 3,682 PERM applications. The catch? Nearly 1,000 of those applications were for the same positions held by the pink-slipped workers.

Vance claims that foreign workers are also getting the shaft, making significantly less than American workers in the same position.

The data shows a foreign worker hired under the H1-B visa program earns $20,000 less than an American citizen in the same role, while those brought in by foreign outsourcing firms make $48,000 less.

Microsoft says 80% of H-1B applications were for existing workers

In its statement, Microsoft attempted to explain away the discrepancies in hiring numbers, refuting Vance’s claims that the company laid off 6,000 American workers and replaced most of them with foreign workers.

We believe in the strength and talent of the American workforce. That is why the vast majority of Microsoft employees in the United States are Americans,

Microsoft said.

In one example, Microsoft stressed that “of the approximately 6,000 H-1B visa applications we submitted in the last fiscal year, 80% were to extend or change the status of existing Microsoft employees.”

Microsoft added that the remaining filings for new employees were for people already legally in the United States, only making up 1% of Microsoft’s entire US workforce.

"These were not to hire new people," it said.

The tech giant also said it applies rigorous standards when filing H-1B petitions for talent to work in the US.

On the salary differences, Microsoft claims it pays “our employees some of the highest compensation in the tech sector, and our wages are among the highest of all H-1B filings.”

In a somewhat ironic twist, hours after Vance pummeled Microsoft with accusations, President Trump presented Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation – praising his leadership without mentioning any of the allegations.