alt Hacker NewsTrump administration is suspending Microsoft from a green card program
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Tactics that were mentioned to be used by Microsoft are unheard of in Europe. I wonder how much of perceived American tech superiority is based off of plain immigration fraud. Would the people that hammer Europe about regulation be ready to only hire bonafide equally-paid people?
PERM certification it looks like
It is so dumb to think of an immigrant as someone who steals a job from a "local", American or else.
When I left Italy to work for Amazon I was 30 years old. Until then, the Italian government (but really, my parents' taxes) paid for my education and healthcare.
Briefly after I became a "productive" member of society, I moved to a few countries and eventually ended in the US at age 35, and worked there for ~10 years. The US got the equivalent of half a million dollar, perhaps more, for free, and had the luxury to use it for these years.
A skilled immigrant is a gift to the country he/she moves in.
We should tell our politicians to stop this BS.
I've always thought that employers should just put in applications with a minimum salary. The top N applications by minimum salary should get visas.
Given Trump's attention span and track record, it's very likely this is squarely aimed at optics before the mid terms. I'd be willing to offer good odds that this gets quietly rolled back post midterm for companies willing to bribe the administration..... er become patriots via a donation to "America First fund.
Is the new visa lottery suspended for these companies or just the green card permanent residence part? If the latter, what becomes of the current H1-B visa holders?
Is a person applying for roles at Msft more likely to use Google search or LinkedIn to find the openings or read a newspaper?
Is there a full list of companies?
As an Indian in tech in India, I feel bad for the people affected.
From a policy perspective though, India should probably consider providing incentives for American companies that move workers and data centers to India. This is probably a great time to do it. GCC growth has been generally resilient despite the impact of AI.
If your competitor is determined to shoot themselves in the foot. Just hand them the pistol and step back!
This means that they could shut down the H-1B program today. Every day they choose to keep importing foreign labor they harm the American worker.
I wonder if MS is going to start hiring for more remote (global) roles as a result.
The irony that the U.S is a relatively very young nation that was built then thrived entirely based on immigration.
Making political hay now that AI is expected to suffice.
I did not start out this jaded.
a move to satisfy nationalist and ai hater at same time.
I don't like nationalism, but I see no way out of it.
What are the perceived methods of fraud in the PERM process?
most of the comments are about the h1b rules, but can we also talk about this?
> The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday proposed a $70,000 fee for international students seeking to work in the United States. The proposed rule would require schools to pay the fee for every student who participates in the Optional Practical Training program, known as OPT, which allows students to work in jobs related to their major during or after their time in school.
Absolutely insane. Nothing infuriates me quite like this administration’s consistent willingness to absolutely destroy the engine of progress that has led to American greatness over the last century. I know so many people who are in this country doing fantastic work, who later got O1 visas or green cards, because they were able to do OPT.
I'm always reading about how much of a meritocracy these tech places are. And that the US is a bastion of free market enterprise compared to backwaters like the UK.
So if this was really true, how come there aren't AI recruiters who scan the supposedly obscure newspapers for job ads like these and bring them to their clients and make a fat commission when their (clearly superior US based candidate :lol:) demonstrates throughout the interview process that they are capable of doing the job.
Can you imagine discussing this rationally when you know it's being done be a kleptocratic government?
Man, people are so easily deceaved because it some how aligns with their favored prejudice.
Good
I am extremely suspicious that the White House is going after Microsoft for not cozying up to Trump the same way OpenAI and friends have..
We have many visa programs
The section H, subsection 1, subsection B visa program has standards of review from the late 1980s. They should all be updated to 2026, inflation adjusted for base salary or compensation expectations, as well as notice requirements
If the administering of it doesn't require Congress to do, then that's fine, I hope the Democrats keep this going if they wind up being in control of appointments and oversight after midterms
All sorts of good and interesting arguments ITT, but at the end of the day it's all academic; companies are going to compensate by offshoring. I doubt this nets us more citizen-jobs, pressures salaries to increase, or provides any benefit other than the messaging to the base.
Aren't a lot of these companies with H1Bs not sponsoring the green card anyway for some reason? I wonder if this will be the first of many. I always found it weird that the company could choose to not sponsor the green card but could employ you via H1B. I always wondered why anyone would work for such an employer long term.
I think the path to green card part is actually good. It's the H1B aspect that I find problematic. Once a person is no longer tied to an employer (e.g. via having a green card) then they're in a better position to negotiate wages and less of an indentured servant. That should happen as quickly as possible but we shouldn't be letting almost anyone in via an H1B.
In some sense - this is "directionally correct" but it should be cutting off letting them use the H1B program itself. I don't know why they didn't do that but maybe there's some legalese reason.
I find it weird that people in this tech sphere are so pro-immigration when you can clearly see that our wages have gone down over the last 5-8 years and immigration has been relentless in this sector. Yes, if you've stuck with one company for that entire time then you've likely seen great appreciation in your ISOs or RSUs but if you're looking for a new offer... It's the same $400k/yr for a senior engineer but cost of living is up, inflation is way up, etc. You should be seeing wages at $500k/yr to keep up with inflation alone but that's not happening. It's still $400k/yr.
Tata and Infosys too apparently, which is actually good. Those were the real abusers of the h1b program.
Party of free market
Remote worker FTW!
Microsoft Comment on Recent Immigration Questions
https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2026/10/08/microso...
GCCs
Dey took er jerbs!
So they are repeating the false promises until the midterms are over, just like they did before the 2024 presidential election.
This is just what MAGA wants to hear so they drag themselves to the voting booth despite having been betrayed on:
- isolationism
- controlling inflation
- no more foreign wars
- pro worker policies
- full Epstein releases, including intelligence operations
OK, now do Oracle to prove you actually care about the issue and aren’t just manipulating the stock market and helping your friends in competing businesses.
Seems Microsoft forgot to deposit their "contribution" into this administrations slush fund.
It's frustrating that my first thought, with this administration, even when they do something objectively defensible, even good, is "OK, so what bribe did Microsoft refuse to pay?"
> Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Washington, said it looks forward to “providing the Administration with additional information.” Of the approximately 6,000 H-1B visa applications it submitted in the last fiscal year, the company said 80% were “to extend or change the status of existing Microsoft employees.”
> “These were not to hire new people,” Microsoft said in a statement. “The remaining filings for new employees were for individuals already legally in the United States who decided to come work for us, and they equal only 1% of our U.S. workforce. They are not new arrivals to our country.”
H-1(b) critics often (ignorantly or dishonestly) compare visa petition numbers to layoff numbers (essentially a stock vs. a flow), so it is nice to see this addressed by the company and in the article.
I suspect the H-1(b) program is the subject of so much scrutiny (instead of L-1, O-1, or OPT) specifically because every employer has to report the number of H-1(b) petitions they make each year.
This sill last about .. 4 days, 2 weeks at most, before a federal district judge puts an injunction on it.
The language is confusing for folks who haven’t experienced or researched the US immigration scheme. A few terms first:
* H1B visas are work permits issued to foreign-born workers sponsored by a company to work in the USA. These visas are bound to a specific employer with limited ability to transfer elsewhere, and on their own have ZERO ability to convert to a Green Card
* Green Card is Legal Permanent Residency (LPR), the first real step towards Naturalization. It lets you live and work anywhere in the USA, provided you generally contribute more than you receive in benefits (though this is very fungible depending on political incentives). Obtaining a Green Card is incredibly hard to do outside of family, with employer sponsorship being one of the few other viable routes.
So what seems to be happening here is that the regime wants to block Microsoft et al for applying for Green Cards for workers currently on H1B visas - not unheard of, but a rarity among the hordes of H1Bs employed yearly by technical firms. I suspect the goal is to discourage workers abroad from applying for H1Bs since employer green card sponsorship is off the table, but it won’t necessarily stop green cards via other routes (like marriage). It also doesn’t address the real grievances around H1Bs themselves, like how it coerces labor into taking more toxic or abusive working environments and lower wages while also robbing domestic workers of opportunities.
In other words, and assuming I’m understanding this messaging correctly (a big if), this is a nothingburger. It doesn’t stop H1B abuse, it doesn’t help American workers, and it punishes the handful of folks who deserve the Green Card conversion from their employers. It’s a packet of lies and misdirection meant to look bigger than it actually is.
My two cents:
Private Businesses should not be able to offer citizenship as a side payment to their employees, they should stick to offering cash. If you are the french foreign legion and you want to reward military recruits with citizenship, then at least it's a government that is receiving the benefit and selling the citizenship, but private business should not be able to sell citizenship, or an easier way to get citizenship, to anyone. It's not a resource that belongs to them.
It won't do shit b/c Microsoft can just hire subcontractors to pull off the same shit with even less stable pay.
Gangster capitalism.
> “They’ll put an advertisement in a small-town newspaper. They’ll go out there and say that ‘We have advertised for a position with our company, and nobody is responding to it.’ And they will use that lack of response to then go and replace American workers with what is effectively foreign indentured servants,” Vance said. “There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has used this system more than Microsoft.”
> ... Microsoft last year laid off 6,000 American workers but also obtained 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards.
I'm glad someone is finally taking this more seriously. There are a lot of big tech teams where you can't even get a job there unless you're Indian. H1B's should be for unique, foreign talent, not senior software engineers.
We need clawbacks from these companies’ c suites, present and past, that were awarded compensation based on criminal practices
Great. Now do H4, PERM, and OPT next. Close all the loopholes. Numberwise H4 is 4x bigger than H1B.
H1B is a lamb big tech is willing to sacrifice to satisfy the populists. You want real change, get rid of the rest.
what's the purpose of a nation, this question was debated at knife's edge a hundred years ago, and the answers then crystalized quite clearly (bolsjevism, fascism, anglo-liberalism/americanism).
after an 80 years detente in the west that it exists solely to safeguard cheap gas for the proles and safeguarding cheap labor for the bourgeois, it's interesting to see that question being asked again.
1791473080 | US suspends Microsoft, major IT firms from key green card program | https://www.reuters.com/business/us-suspending-permanent-res... | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50006948 | 2 comments
1791474350 | US says big tech barred from sponsoring H-1B workers for green cards | https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/08/vance-microsoft-ado... | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50007254 | 1 comment
1791474414 | Trump administration is suspending Microsoft from a green card program | https://apnews.com/article/h1b-visa-program-vance-microsoft-... | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50007267 | 1 comment
1791478236 | Vance says Microsoft, Adobe barred from sponsoring H-1B workers for green cards | https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/general/vance-says-microsoft... | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50008266 | 1 comment
1789787791 | Executive order on H-1B nonimmigrant visa administration | https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/09/enha... | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49762960 | 52 comments
1790909964 | Apple is now censoring anti-immigration material you send in your PRIVATE texts | https://twitter.com/drjoshcsimmons/status/210582382160975909... | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49929422 | 4 comments
1791389914 | Student Lender Collapses as Immigrant Crackdown Roils Loan Book | https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-07/student-l... | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49994923 | 0 comments
This is interesting because it means that the ultra-right agenda and ideology of Trump (or rather, the whole network behind him - see how the prepare the eyeliner-boy to seize power once Trump loses elections), is bigger than individual bromance-corporation connections, such as Microsoft can effect on a smaller level.
On the big level they are all still in cahoots of corruption, but on a smaller scale the ideology is still in place and overrides some of the corruption in place.
Didn't Satya Nadella give $3.5 million to various Trump grifts? Gotta hate when a mobster doesn't stay bought.
Note that this appears to be about green cards/permanent residency rather than h1b.
Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said other companies that would be suspended from the Permanent Labor Certification Program included Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., Infosys Ltd., Tata, Wipro Ltd., HCL Technologies Ltd., and Capgemini SE. He said there were multiple active federal investigations ongoing into the matter.
I'm surprised at how easily some of you are convinced. It's the midterms coming up; this programme has been abused for years (to my understanding) the timing is a little odd, no?