The White House has blocked Microsoft and several other technology companies from hiring skilled international workers, with Vice President JD Vance accusing the firms Thursday of committing fraud through the H-1B visa program.
Vance said Microsoft, one of the most valuable companies in the United States, has effectively been replacing American workers with foreign employees who can be paid less. He leveled the fraud allegation against the company and other unnamed tech firms during remarks Thursday.
The H-1B program admits 85,000 workers annually — 65,000 in the general cap plus 20,000 reserved for holders of advanced degrees from U.S. universities. Technology companies have relied on it for decades to fill engineering and software roles they say they cannot staff domestically.
Critics of the program, including Vance, argue that companies use it to suppress wages by hiring workers who are tied to their employer's sponsorship and are less likely to leave or negotiate. The visa is valid for three years and renewable for another three, with green card sponsorship often taking far longer.
Microsoft employs roughly 220,000 people worldwide, with a significant share of its engineering workforce based in Redmond, Washington. The company has not issued a public response to the White House action.
The move marks an escalation in the administration's scrutiny of corporate immigration practices. Restricting H-1B hiring at major tech firms could ripple through an industry that has already shed tens of thousands of jobs since 2022, even as companies continue to petition for specialized foreign talent in artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
It remains unclear which other companies the White House has barred or whether the restriction applies to new petitions only or extends to existing visa holders already working at the affected firms. Vance did not specify the mechanism used to enforce the block.
Immigration attorneys have previously warned that sudden changes to H-1B processing can strand workers abroad and disrupt projects mid-cycle, since visa petitions are tied to specific employers and cannot easily be transferred.
