White House blocks Microsoft from foreign worker hiring programme

Microsoft and several other technology firms have been barred by the White House from hiring skilled international workers on a permanent basis through a widely used visa programme.

US Vice-President JD Vance on Thursday accused Microsoft alongside other firms of committing fraud through the use of the H-1B visa programme and a related process for workers from abroad to become permanent US residents.

Vance claimed that Microsoft, one of the most valuable companies in the US, has been effectively replacing American workers with "foreign indentured servants."

Microsoft said most of the H-1B visas filed over the last financial year were for existing workers, who are paid the same as local staff.

"No company in the US has abused this system more than Microsoft," Vance said.

He also made similar accusations about Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini.

The US government will not process any new or pending Permanent Labor Certification Program (PERM) applications from Microsoft or the seven other companies, Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling said during the same conference.

Sonderling said companies like Microsoft, as well as US universities, have turned into "visa mills" that were "flooding" the US with foreign workers.