Microsoft disputes Vance's claim company replaced US workers with H-1B holders

Labor Inspector General subpoenas nine universities over alleged visa fraud

Microsoft disputed Vice President JD Vance’s allegation that the company “replaced” 6,000 US workers laid off in 2025 with H-1B visa holders, in a company blog post issued at the same White House event where Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling announced the suspension of Microsoft and Adobe from the federal Permanent Labor Certification program.

Microsoft argued in its blog post that the “vast majority” of its employees in the United States are Americans, and that 80% of the company’s applications to the H-1B visa program last year were to extend or change the status of existing employees. “Microsoft only files H-1B petitions for those who meet the rigorous standards of this visa category,” the company said. “We pay our employees some of the highest compensation in the tech sector, and our wages are among the highest of all H-1B filings. We pay our H-1B employees the same as any other employees doing comparable work.”

Sonderling announced the suspensions at a press conference while appearing with Vance, who is in charge of the White House’s anti-fraud efforts, according to UPI. Sonderling said Microsoft and Adobe were suspended “due to multiple active federal investigations.” Sonderling said the Labor Department would not accept or process new Permanent Labor Certification applications from Cognizant, Infosys, Capgemini, Tata, Wipro and HCL.

Citing the affected companies, Sonderling said: “Since 2009, just these companies alone have requested almost 3 million foreign workers. They’ve received over 230,000 H-1B visa approvals and over 100,000 permanent labor certifications. That’s hundreds of thousands of jobs that were taken from American workers.” Sonderling described the action as historic, saying the Department of Labor is “taking historic action by shutting down the pipeline of systemic fraud.”

Vance connected the Microsoft suspension to the company’s 2025 layoffs, asserting that the company had “replaced” the 6,000 laid-off workers with H-1B visa holders. “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.

At the same event, Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito announced a separate investigation into “visa fraud involving nine major American universities.” D’Esposito named eight of the institutions under investigation: the University of Pittsburgh, Harvard University, Stanford University, Brown University, the University of California at Davis, the California Institute of Technology, Arizona State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Subpoenas have been served, investigations are underway and nobody will be getting a free pass because their name is carved into an expensive building,” D’Esposito said.

The announcements came at a White House summit where President Donald Trump is scheduled to award the National Medal of Science to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and other tech leaders. Nadella is from India and came to the United States in 1988; he was hired at Microsoft in 1992.