The Trump administration’s statement Thursday that it would suspend Microsoft and Adobe from a federal visa sponsorship program is resonating through the tech industry. Immigration attorneys told Business Insider that employees with H-1B visas who work at Microsoft, Adobe, and the other tech companies mentioned should seek advice and gain clarity about their status in light of the suspensions. Individual cases can vary, and attorneys spoke in general terms about the advice they would give without knowing a client’s specific circumstances or status. “This is a time when immigrants, high-skilled immigrants, really need to pay attention to the laws,” said Tahmina Watson, a commercial immigration attorney at Watson Immigration Law in Seattle. “Things are changing in an instant,” he added. Business Insider spoke with eight immigration attorneys Thursday following the announcement, as part of our ongoing series, “H-1B Fallout: 1 Year After,” which explores how foreign workers are navigating a rapidly changing U.S. immigration landscape. Some of the immigration attorneys said the suspensions would likely be challenged in court. Others said they were the latest in a series of U.S. measures targeting foreign workers. One lawyer suggested they would only affect a relatively small group of workers. “Most people will be able to wait or have time to change jobs,” said Loren Locke, an attorney at Locke Immigration Law in Atlanta. The Permanent Labor Certification program, or PERM, is an initial step that employers generally must complete before sponsoring a worker for an employment-based visa, requiring them to demonstrate that no qualified, available U.S. worker could fill the position. Vice President JD Vance said at a press conference Thursday that Microsoft had “abused” this system by laying off American workers and using it to hire foreigners, who he said were paid less. “If you do the math, for every worker Microsoft laid off, they replaced them with one and a half foreign indentured servants,” Vance said. Want more Business Insider in your news? Add BI on Google to make our reports easier to find when you’re looking for what matters. A Microsoft spokesperson pointed Business Insider to a blog post the company published on Thursday, which said that “the vast majority of Microsoft employees in the United States are American.” The company said it pays its H-1B employees “the same as any other employee performing comparable work.” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella receives the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Donald Trump on Thursday, hours after Microsoft suspended a visa program. Win McNamee/Getty Images Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said at the news conference that the government would not accept any new PERM applications or process any pending ones for the named companies, which, in addition to Microsoft and Adobe, also include technology outsourcing companies Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini. The Importance of Knowing Your Status By suspending new and pending PERM applications, the Trump administration left a very specific group of H-1B visa holders in limbo. said Matthew Maiona, an immigration attorney at Maiona Ward in Boston. Maiona said a hypothetical Microsoft or Adobe employee, on a six-year H-1B visa, could now, in theory, be ordered to appear in immigration court under this new suspension. “You could be in trouble if you can’t qualify for another nonimmigrant visa classification,” Maiona said. “You may have to leave the United States.” But Locke said workers would only face possible expulsion if they exhausted their H-1B eligibility and were unable to secure an extension or other legal basis (of which there are several) to remain in the country. Although H-1B visas have a legal maximum of six years before they expire, they can be extended beyond that number if workers have made enough progress to obtain a green card, he said. “If the goal is to crush H-1B workers, it’s not great, but it’s not crushing them either,” Locke said. Todd Pomerleau, a Boston-based immigration attorney, said that with uncertainty over the scope and enforcement of the suspensions, “anyone who is concerned about their immigration status needs to seek out competent counsel.” Buchalter’s Immigration & Global Mobility Practice, a Seattle firm, Ted Chiappari, head of immigration law at Duane Morris LLP, said federal statute only allows the Department of Labor to unilaterally suspend an employer from using the PERM program for 180 days. “It’s inappropriate, they have six years to decide whether to debar an employer,” he said. And even then, Chiappari said, they can only debar an employer for up to three years. Few lawyers interviewed by Business Insider said they were surprised by the move. Most of them saw it as another salvo in what they described as the Trump administration’s continuing crackdown on foreign workers. Upadhyay said that just the day before, he had spoken with a Microsoft employee with an H-1B whose spouse also had an H-1B. American citizen children. “I have children to support,” Upadhyay recalled saying. “What happens now?”
