Adobe, Microsoft among tech giants suspended from foreign visa program

The Trump administration announced Thursday that several major tech companies with Bay Area ties were subject to a new crackdown on a visa program for skilled foreign workers.

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Bay Area-headquartered Adobe and Washington state-headquartered Microsoft, which has offices in San Francisco, Berkeley and Mountain View, were among the most notable companies suspended from applying for green card sponsorships through the permanent labor certification program, known as PERM. The program enables companies to hire people who are not U.S. citizens to live and work permanently in the United States. 

During a Thursday news conference, Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling alleged that companies were abusing the policy, giving workers a direct path to citizenship while passing on American labor. PERM applications can take nearly a year to process, according to the Department of Labor.

“We are cutting off the head of the snake,” Sonderling said.

The suspension also includes large IT outsourcing companies and consulting firms Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini — all of which have at least one office in the Bay Area. Sonderling said in the announcement that any and all pending applications will not be processed. 

Only one company included in the freeze responded to a request for comment from SFGATE. Microsoft maintained in a statement that the “vast majority” of its employees were U.S. citizens.

Reuters reported Thursday that Microsoft had the largest number of PERM applications filed and approved between June 2025 and June 2026 with 6,260, more than double those of Cupertino-headquartered Apple, which had the second-most approved applications at 2,676. Intel, Tata and Oracle followed, with 2,409, 2,305, 2,224 approved applications, respectively. During the same news conference, Vice President JD Vance said that no other company “has abused the system” more than Microsoft.

Vance also criticized the tech industry’s use of H-1B visas, which companies use to fill high-skill positions without giving recipients a distinct path to permanent residency. In its Thursday report, though, Reuters said that Amazon actually has filed for the most H-1B visas, nearly tripling Microsoft’s numbers. Amazon was not included in the PERM suspension.

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The Trump administration often walks the line between badgering American tech companies that prop up the U.S. economy over their embrace of foreign labor and treating their leaders like royalty. That tightrope was on full display Thursday. Just hours after slamming Microsoft, President Donald Trump awarded CEO Satya Nadella the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

Trump called Nadella a “key figure” in Microsoft’s history and praised his company’s tech as “some of the most capable software ever built.” Nadella thanked the president in an X post, without mentioning his company’s suspension from PERM.

“I’m humbled to stand alongside so many giants of American innovation and looking forward for what we can continue to do together to advance technology and drive American prosperity,” Nadella said in a post.

Contact tech reporter Matthew Brown at [email protected] or matthewbrownsfgate.11 on Signal.