"Indentured Servants": Vance On Microsoft Hiring Foreign Workers Under H-1B

US Vice President JD Vance on Thursday accused Microsoft of abusing the Permanent Labour Certification Programme, officially known as PERM, and replacing American workers with non-Americans. Vance suspended the PERM programme for Microsoft and made it clear that they needed to hire "great American workers" instead of replacing them with "foreign indentured servants".

The PERM programme lets firms apply for green cards, or permanent residency, for H-1B visa workers. The US government on Thursday suspended eight companies from the Permanent Labour Certification Programme, including three American firms -- Capgemini, Microsoft and Adobe -- and five Indian IT firms -- Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro and HCL. This directly affects H-1B visa workers seeking permanent residency in the US.

"The H -1B visa is how people come into the country. The PERM program is how they stay in the United States to begin with. There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has abused this system more than Microsoft," Vance said while addressing a press conference on 'fighting visa fraud'.

READ | US Bars Tata, HCL, Infosys Among 8 IT Firms From Green Card Filing. What It Means For Indians

Vance backed his claim with numbers and said: "In the last year, Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers. At the same time, the company benefited from 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards. In other words, if you do the math, for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants."

Vance described this as a "scandalous system" which is now being put to an end.

In a message to Microsoft and other foreign and domestic corporations suspended from the PERM programme, Vance said that the government wants these companies to thrive in the US but not at the cost of American workers.

"We want people to invest in the United States of America, particularly the American technology sector. We are the biggest boosters of your industry. We want you to continue to grow and to employ a lot of people, but we want you to employ American workers. And so, our message to Microsoft is you're a great American company, but you've got to hire great American workers. You cannot lay off American workers and then replace them with foreign indentured servants."

Vice President JD Vance announces the suspension of the PERM Program for Microsoft: "Thanks to an ongoing investigation, we have decided to suspend the PERM program for Microsoft, which means they will no longer be able to take those H-1Bs and apply for permanent resident status within the United States of America. Now our message to Microsoft and to any other foreign or domestic corporation is quite simple. We obviously want you to thrive in the United States of America. We want people to invest in the United States of America, particularly the American technology sector. We're the biggest boosters of your industry. We want you to continue to grow and to employ a lot of people, but we want you to employ American workers. And so our message to Microsoft is, you're great American company, but you've got to hire great American workers. You cannot lay off American workers and then replace them with foreign indentured servants."

— Vice President JD Vance (@VP) October 8, 2026

JD Vance On How Companies Profit By Underpaying H-1B Visa Workers

The US Vice President exposed the "game" being played by companies that bring in H-1B visa workers and profit by underpaying them. He said: "If you are working as an H-1B visa holder in the US, you're earning $20,000 less than an American citizen hired in the same position. If you were brought in by one of these foreign outsourcing firms, you're making $48,000 less than an American citizen in a similar position."

Vice President JD Vance breaks down the data: "If you are working as an H-1B visa in the United States of America, you're earning $20,000 less than an American citizen hired in the same position. If you were brought in by one of these foreign outsourcing firms, you're making $48,000 less than an American citizen in a similar position. So I'm sure that everybody here understands the game that is being played. You bring in indentured servants from outside the country, you lay off American workers and, if you're a corporation, you make a ton of money by under cutting the wages of American workers, replacing them with people who frankly shouldn't be in the United States of America to begin with."

— Vice President JD Vance (@VP) October 8, 2026

Vance said that companies 'bring in indentured servants, lay off American workers, and make a ton of money by undercutting the wages of American workers, replacing them'.

US' "Visa Mills" Barb

Keith Sonderling, the Labour Secretary said his department is taking "historic action" by shutting down the "pipeline of systemic fraud" and tagged universities and companies hiring foreign workers as "visa mills".

"It begins with universities and companies that have turned into visa mills, promoting foreign workers who have lied about their qualifications to take jobs from our beloved American workers."

Sonderling thanked US President Donald Trump and Vance for "cutting off the head of the snake".

We're cutting off the head of the snake and protecting American Workers. Beginning today, @USDOL is SUSPENDING Microsoft and Adobe among other companies from the permanent visa program. After a pipeline of systemic fraud has flooded our country for years with foreign labor, we're putting an end to it today. We are taking action under the direction of @POTUS and with the leadership of @VP and @USLaborIG on the @WHFraudTF—DELIVERING for the American People, protecting their money, and punishing fraudsters. 💪 🇺🇸

— Secretary Keith Sonderling (@Sonderling47) October 8, 2026

Announcing the suspension of the PERM programme for eight IT firms, Sonderling shared data and said that "Since 2009, these companies alone have requested almost 3 million foreign workers. They've received over 2,30,000 H -1B visas approvals and over 1,00,000 permanent labour certifications. That's hundreds of thousands of jobs that were taken from American workers."

What Microsoft Said

In a statement on Thursday, Microsoft said 80 per cent of the 6,000 H1-B visa applications it had submitted in the last fiscal year were to extend or change the status of existing employees and not to hire new people.

The company said it believes in the strength and talent of the American workforce.

"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," Microsoft said.