US freezes green cards for employees of Microsoft, Adobe and 6 other IT companies

US authorities have indefinitely frozen green card processing for Microsoft and Adobe employees who work on H-1B visas. According to CNews, the same measure affects six more IT companies: Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini. Eight employers are on the list in total. The allegation is blunt: the companies are accused of workforce fraud because they hired more foreigners than they laid off Americans.

What we know so far

The source offers few details, so we stick to what it says explicitly.

• What is frozen: green card processing, i.e. permanent residency, for workers on H-1B visas.
• Duration: indefinite. No conditions for lifting the freeze have been named.
• Who is affected: Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL, Capgemini.
• Basis: suspicion that the companies hired more foreigners than they laid off Americans.
• Type of allegation: workforce fraud, i.e. a charge of abusing the visa system.

The report does not name the agency or give a document number. It also does not say whether the freeze covers only new applications or those already in progress. There are no comments from the companies themselves.

Why it hits everyone at once

Two different groups ended up on the same list. Infosys, TCS, Wipro, HCL, Cognizant and Capgemini have long built their business on sending engineers to clients, and for them H-1B is a working tool. Microsoft and Adobe hire specialists for their own products, including AI, where competition for talent remains fierce. When authorities put outsourcers and product giants in the same row, the signal to the market is a broad one: what is under scrutiny is not individual schemes but the hiring approach itself.

For an employee, a green card means the ability to plan life in the country with confidence. The H-1B is tied to the employer and limited in time: usually three years, extendable by another three. Further extensions are possible once the green card process is already under way. If processing stalls, the worker is left in limbo. Changing jobs, moving the family and buying a home all get postponed, while the company risks losing a specialist on whom it spent months of hiring and relocation.

The criterion of "hired more foreigners than it laid off Americans" raises a separate question. It compares two flows; it is not proof that a specific American was replaced by a specific visa worker. The report does not disclose which periods, which divisions and which thresholds are used for the comparison. Without that, it is impossible to judge how well-founded the allegations are.

What teams and candidates should do

Until official documents appear, it is wisest to follow a few rules.

1. Check your case status. Employees of the listed companies should ask their employer's immigration lawyers for a written answer: what stage their application is at and whether the freeze affects it.

2. Count the dates. Those in their sixth year on H-1B need to find out whether they will keep the right to an extension while processing is suspended.

3. Don't act on rumors. Quitting or accepting a new offer in a panic is risky: the rules for changing employers with an unfinished case differ from person to person.

4. Follow the primary source. What is needed is the agency's decision, the text of the requirements and official statements from the companies.

Until they appear, any forecasts of a mass exodus of engineers remain guesswork. 5. For employers: collect data on the ratio of hires to layoffs by division.

If the review goes further, these are the numbers you will have to present.

If the freeze drags on, the IT industry, with its dependence on international talent, will be the most vulnerable. For now, this story has more questions than answers, and we will return to it as soon as official confirmation appears.