Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote that his story could not have happened if it weren't for the United States. However, on Thursday, the Trump administration took action to prevent his company from helping its foreign employees follow the same path he once took.

Vice President JD Vance announced on October 8th that the government would suspend Microsoft's participation in the Department of Labor's permanent labor certification program (PERM). This program is typically the first step for employers to apply for green cards for foreign employees. Adobe as well as six IT service companies – Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consulting Services Corporation (Tata Consultancy Services), Wipro, HCL Technologies, and Capgemini – will also be suspended from participating in this program.

Hours later, President Trump awarded Nadella the National Technology and Innovation Medal, which is one of the highest honors bestowed by the United States in the field of innovation.

What do suspension measures actually mean?

The Department of Labor stated that it will no longer accept new PERM applications from these eight companies, nor will it process applications that are already in the process.

This measure does not affect the H-1B visa. The H-1B is a temporary work permit that is regulated by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. As for the PERM, when using this program, employers must first post job advertisements and prove that there are no qualified, available American workers who can perform the job before they can apply for permanent residence for foreign employees. Most applicants were already working in the United States with a H-1B at that time.

Microsoft is the largest user of this project. According to the analysis by GeekWire, in the fiscal year ending September 2025, the Department of Labor approved 3,161 applications from Microsoft, surpassing any other employer.

When asked how long the suspension would last, Vance stated that the measure would "continue until it is no longer necessary," and added that the government has "a variety of tools to suspend it indefinitely."

Doug Rand, a senior advisor to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services during the former Biden administration ( Doug Rand ), described this measure as "self-contradictory." He told The Associated Press that green cards allow workers to no longer rely on their employers to maintain their immigration status.

Wans names Microsoft

“So, if the H-1B visa is the way people enter this country, then the PERM program is the way they stay in the United States,” Vance said at a White House press conference. “Unfortunately, there is no company in the United States that abuses this system more than Microsoft.”

"Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers last year," he said, "Meanwhile, the company obtained 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards." He added, "In other words, if you do the math, for every employee Microsoft laid off, one semi-foreign contract worker took their place."

Wans also pointed the finger at the entire H-1B project. “The original intention of the H-1B visa program was to allow the company to bring in truly outstanding talents from outside of the United States to fill positions that could not be filled by American workers,” he said. “Unfortunately, over the past few years, and perhaps even over the past few decades, this program has been tainted by fraud.”

The Seattle Times reported that the White House did not provide evidence of fraud on the part of Microsoft.

Federal data complicates Vance's statements. According to data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Microsoft received 6,258 H-1B approvals in the fiscal year 2025, ranking third behind Amazon's 19,178 approvals and Meta's 6,294 approvals, and neither of these two companies had their approvals suspended. Approximately two-thirds of the approved individuals at Microsoft were already employees of the company.

Wans also acknowledged the awkwardness of this timing. "Microsoft is a great American company, and we have a good relationship with them," he said, but added that the government will "reject their applications for permanent residency until they prove that they will put American workers first."

Microsoft refutes

Microsoft stated in a statement, "We believe in the strength and talent of the American workforce. That's why the majority of Microsoft's employees in the United States are Americans. We look forward to providing more information to the government."

"Of the approximately 6,000 H-1B visa applications submitted in our last fiscal year, 80% were for extending or changing the status of existing Microsoft employees. These were not for hiring new staff," the company stated. "The remaining applications for new employees were for those who are already legally in the United States and have decided to work for our company; they account for only 1% of our total number of employees in the U.S. They are not newcomers to the U.S."

The company also denies the claim that visa holders are paid less. "Microsoft only submits H-1B applications for those who meet the strict criteria of this visa category," the company stated. "We pay some of the highest salaries in the technology industry, and our wage levels are among the highest among all H-1B applications. The compensation we offer to H-1B employees is the same as that paid to other employees performing comparable work."

This statement does not directly respond to the suspension measures of PERM.

Nadella's own path from H-1B to CEO

Nadella was born in Hyderabad, India. In 1988, he went to the United States to study computer science and obtained his master's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1990. He worked at Sun Microsystems before joining Microsoft in 1992, and later earned a degree from the University of Chicago in MBA. Since 2014, he has held the position of CEO at Microsoft.

His path to citizenship was not smooth sailing. In his 2017 memoir "_Hit Refresh", Nadal wrote that in December 1992, he married his wife Anu in India, at which time he was a permanent resident. Due to her visa application being rejected on the grounds that her spouse was a green card holder, the waiting time could be as long as several years.

Therefore, in June 1994, Nadella went to the United States Embassy in New Delhi and gave up his green card status, reverting back to H-1B, so that his wife could reunite with him immediately, as GeekWire recalled. Later, he regained his permanent residency and became a U.S. citizen.

At that time, the PERM program did not exist; it came into effect in 2005, replacing the earlier labor certification process. However, the path of H-1B, employer sponsorship, green card, and naturalization is precisely the one that many foreign employees at Microsoft are following today.

Nadella has not yet commented publicly on this suspension. However, he once thanked Trump on X for presenting him with a medal, writing that he "feels honored to stand alongside so many American innovation giants."

Medals after a few hours

At the "American Innovation Golden Age Summit" held by the American Institute for Peace, Trump referred to Nadella as "a key figure in Microsoft's transformation. He reshaped the company and empowered businesses, students, and consumers around the world with some of the most powerful software ever developed, and even one that could be described as unprecedented."

Nadella and Michael Dell of Dell Technologies jointly received a technology medal. Trump also awarded National Science Medals to Elon Musk, Sergey Brin, Jensen Huang, and Lisa Su.

Among these six winners, only Dell was born in the United States. Musk was born in South Africa, Brin was born in the Soviet Union, Jensen Huang and Lisa Su were born in Taiwan, and Nadella was born in India.