Microsoft Claims 80% of H-1B Applications are for Employee Renewals
Microsoft issued a statement regarding the U.S. government's suspension of permanent labor certification for its foreign employees, stating that U.S. employees make up the vast majority of its workforce in the U.S. and that it is prepared to provide additional materials to the government. Vice President J.D. Vance stated on the same day that no U.S. company abuses this visa system more than Microsoft; Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling announced that new and pending permanent labor certification applications from Microsoft and seven other companies will no longer be accepted.
According to Microsoft, approximately 6,000 H-1B applications were submitted in the last fiscal year, with 80% aimed at extending or changing the status of existing Microsoft employees rather than hiring new ones. The remaining new employee applications involve individuals who have already been legally residing in the U.S., accounting for about 1% of the total U.S. workforce, and are not new immigrants. The company also stated that it only submits applications for individuals who meet the category standards, and that H-1B employees are paid the same as other employees in similar roles, with salaries ranking among the highest in all H-1B applications.
The numbers cited by the government differ from the company's figures. Vance claimed that Microsoft laid off about 6,000 U.S. employees last year while benefiting from approximately 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards, stating that for every layoff, one and a half foreign employees were hired as replacements. Sonderling stated that Microsoft and Adobe together applied for nearly 3 million foreign employees, were approved for over 230,000 H-1B visas, and received over 100,000 permanent labor certifications. The suspension also affects Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini.
The statement did not address whether layoffs and visa applications occurred simultaneously, nor did it provide a specific percentage of U.S. employees. The company has over 200,000 employees globally. External compensation data indicates that the median salary for Microsoft H-1B employees is approximately $155,000. After the suspension of permanent labor certifications, the new green card pathways for these companies are halted at the Labor Department, and whether existing H-1B statuses can be renewed is not clarified in this statement.
The seller is Microsoft, which aims to retain the status of its existing foreign employees, while the buyer is the Labor Department's approval authority. The event is driven by the government's suspension of certifications, not the hiring season. The beneficiaries are the administrative departments that link layoffs and visas in the same narrative; the pressured parties are the foreign employees relying on H-1B to transition to green cards, as well as the outsourcing and software companies named.
Source: Public Information
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Microsoft has long been a major user of H-1B visas, but its usage differs from that of Indian outsourcing companies. Infosys, Tata, Wipro, and Cognizant have historically tied visas to outsourcing contracts, with personnel moving in and out of client sites based on projects; Microsoft and Adobe, on the other hand, tie visas to their own R&D positions and then pursue permanent labor certifications to transition to green cards. After Microsoft laid off about 6,000 employees in 2025, Vance used the concurrent approximately 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards to create a narrative of replacement, while the company used the 80% figure for renewals to dismantle this parallel.
Money does not flow in the statement; it is stuck at the Labor Department. With the suspension of permanent labor certifications, new green card applications and pending cases cannot move forward, while existing H-1B employees can still renew or change status according to the company. By limiting new applications to 1% of U.S. employees, Microsoft shifts the debate from "whether to bring in new hires" to "can existing employees stay." Equal pay and the $155,000 median salary are used to counter accusations of lowering U.S. wages.
In contrast, since 2017, there has been an increase in H-1B denials for Indian outsourcing companies, and in 2025, high fees were imposed on new H-1B applications. This suspension list places product companies and outsourcing companies together, transitioning from a lottery quota system to controlling green card pathways based on employer eligibility.
Structurally, this represents a regulatory change. The scarcity of visas shifts from entry quotas to employer qualifications: the same employee may already be legally in the U.S., but if the employer is removed from permanent labor certification, the downstream for status change is cut off. The layoff numbers and application numbers do not need to prove a one-to-one replacement to become political inputs for the suspension list.
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Renewals are not hiring, but will be counted as hiring.
Green cards are tied to employers, not to individuals already in the country.
Layoff numbers and visa numbers side by side will be read as replacements.