Vance says Microsoft replaced laid-off workers with foreign hires: What the visa data shows

The Trump administration announced Thursday that it suspended eight tech companies from sponsoring green card workers, after Vice President JD Vance has claimed that Microsoft replaced workers who were laid off with foreign nationals, sparking questions about the company's use of overseas talent.

The suspension of the Labor Department’s PERM program for green cards which confer permanent residency status to immigrants does not affect temporary H-1Bs temporary work permits but H-1B approval data shows how heavily these companies depend on foreign workers.

Primarily data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services H-1B Employer Data Hub also shows that Amazon and Meta were the primary sponsors of H-1B visas though other technology companies faced suspensions. The Labour Department’s inspector general Anthony D'Esposito launched a probe into suspected J-1 visa fraud including nine major American universities.

Notably, all eight suspended companies are nation-leading enterprises and major 50 H-1B sponsors. In accordance with the USCIS data hub, Amazon with 19,178 H-1B approvals in fiscal 2025 and Meta with 6,294 were largely unaffected; moreover Microsoft was a close third with 6,258.