Washington Suspends Microsoft and Adobe From the Green Card Programme: Vance Wants "Great American Workers", the Companies Are Accused of Fraud

Donald Trump's administration has suspended Microsoft, Adobe and several other tech companies from the programme through which skilled foreign workers obtain permanent residence in the US - the so-called green card. The reasoning isn't bureaucratic, it's heavy: the government accuses the companies of fraud.

Also on the list are Capgemini, Cognizant, HCL, Infosys, Tata and Wipro - names every programmer in the Balkans knows from job ads. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said the state will accept neither new nor already filed applications for permanent labor certification involving these firms. In other words, those already waiting in line are left stuck too.

The political message came from Vice President JD Vance: "Our message to Microsoft is: You are a great American company, but you have to hire great American workers." A compliment and a slap in one sentence - the style of a politician who knows the cameras are rolling.

Microsoft isn't staying quiet. The company says most of its US employees are Americans, that of around 6,000 H-1B visa applications last fiscal year, a full 80 percent were for extensions or changes of status for people already working for it, and that it pays foreign workers the same as others for the same work. Adobe has not responded so far.

H-1B visas are meant for highly skilled positions employers struggle to fill with domestic staff, and almost three quarters of approved visas go to workers from India. That's why it's no accident the biggest Indian IT companies ended up on the list. Vance also announced an investigation into nine universities, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford, for allegedly abusing the foreign student programme to push down Americans' wages.

For years the green card has been the goal of engineers packing their bags for American tech hubs, including from our region. If the door is narrowing even when a company the size of Microsoft stands behind the application, what's left for those whose employer carries nowhere near that weight in Washington?