US Bars Major Tech Rivals from Green Card Program Over Fraud Allegations

US officials stopped eight tech companies from a visa program on Thursday. Vice President JD Vance led the announcement.

The firms include Microsoft, Adobe, and four Indian technology groups. A European firm named Capgemini is also on the list.

The government says these groups committed fraud in their paperwork. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling confirmed the ban starts now.

This program is called PERM. It lets firms hire foreign staff for permanent residency. Officials stopped new applications from those eight companies.

Microsoft defended itself against the charge. A spokesperson said most of their American workers are citizens already. They claimed only one percent of hires were new international arrivals.

One report says a statement came later, while another notes no immediate reply was given at the time.

About three quarters of these skilled visas go to people from India. Tech jobs make up most of the approved requests in this category.

The probe goes beyond just tech companies. Nine schools face scrutiny too. Harvard and Stanford are named among them.

Officials say universities might use student visas to lower pay for American staff. Subpoenas have already been sent to those institutions.

Money is involved in these rules too. The government proposed a fee over one hundred thousand dollars for new workers earlier this year. OpenAI paid three point two million dollars recently for similar issues.

Current visa holders will not lose their status under this order. Only new requests from the banned firms face a hold. Investigations are continuing without criminal charges yet.