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The U.S. Department of Labor will suspend Microsoft and Adobe from its Permanent Labor Certification program, Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling announced Thursday. The action comes as the Trump administration intensifies its scrutiny of immigration and foreign hiring programs before November’s midterm elections.

The suspension means the Labor Department will not accept or process new applications under the program from the affected companies. Sonderling said Cognizant, Infosys, Capgemini, Tata, Wipro and HCL will face the same restriction.

Adobe and Microsoft were included “due to multiple active federal investigations,” according to Sonderling. The source did not provide further details about those investigations or describe their scope.

Sonderling framed the broader enforcement action as a response to companies’ extensive use of foreign worker programs. He argued that the hiring practices involved large numbers of positions that otherwise could have gone to Americans.

“Since 2009, just these companies alone have requested almost 3 million foreign workers. They’ve received over 230,000 H-1B visas approvals and over 100,000 permanent labor certifications. That’s hundreds of thousands of jobs that were taken from American workers,” Sonderling said.

Vice President JD Vance directed particular criticism at Microsoft, pointing to the company’s 6,000 layoffs in 2025. Vance claimed Microsoft had “replaced” those employees with workers holding H-1B visas.

At the same time, Vance said the administration intended to maintain its relationship with the technology company. He tied Microsoft’s future access to permanent residency applications to evidence that the company was prioritizing American workers.

“So we’re going to continue to support Microsoft and have a great relationship with Microsoft, but we’re also going to deny them the ability to apply for these permanent residencies until they show that they are going to get serious about putting American workers first,” Vance said.

Microsoft pushed back against Vance’s characterization and defended its employment record in a statement Thursday. The company said “the vast majority of Microsoft employees in the United States are Americans.”

The company also addressed its recent visa activity. “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 said.

Microsoft said its petitions were filed only for workers “who meet the rigorous standards of this visa category.” It also said its wages for H-1B employees ranked among the highest across H-1B filings.

The suspension announcement came as President Donald Trump prepared to award the National Medal of Science to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and other leading technology executives Thursday. The medal ceremony was scheduled for the same summit where the suspension was announced.

Nadella is from India, moved to the United States in 1988 and joined Microsoft in 1992. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su were also being honored, and each immigrated to the United States.

Musk was born in South Africa, while Su and Huang were born in Taiwan. Vance distinguished those executives from the broader foreign hiring practices targeted by the administration.

“It’s one thing if you want to bring in a person like Elon Musk,” Vance said. “I think 99% of American citizens look at somebody like Elon Musk or Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD, and they say, obviously, if that person wants to come in and build something great in the United States of America, we support that.”

Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Apple have ranked among the largest sponsors of H-1B visas for decades. According to 2026 data from Levels.fyi, Amazon led this year with 35,426 worker petitions, followed by Cognizant and EY.

Microsoft ranked a close fourth with 21,706 petitions for 2026. The company’s median base salary for those petitions was $180,710, while Microsoft maintained that its filings covered workers who satisfied the visa category’s standards.

The administration’s move places major technology and consulting companies under sharper federal pressure over their reliance on foreign labor programs. For Microsoft and Adobe, the immediate consequence is a halt to new Permanent Labor Certification applications while the suspensions remain in effect.

DISCLAIMER: GoldInvestors.news is not a registered investment, legal or tax advisor or broker/dealer. All investment/financial opinions expressed by GoldInvestors.news are from the personal research and experience of the owner of the site and are intended as educational material. Although best efforts are made to ensure that all information is accurate and up to date, occasionally unintended errors and misprints may occur.