Microsoft suspended from US visa program, Vance says

US Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that Microsoft was being suspended from a key visa program as part of a fraud crackdown by President Donald Trump's administration.

Vance said software firm Adobe was also being suspended from the program. He accused Microsoft of abusing the H-1B visa program for highly skilled foreign workers, saying it had “laid off 6,000 American workers while replacing them with 6,300 H-1Bs”.

“Our message to Microsoft is: you're a great American company, but you've got to hire great American workers,” Vance told a White House press conference.

Vance also said nine elite universities, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, would be investigated over a separate visa program for study exchanges. He accused the institutions of using visas to employ cheaper foreign researchers.

The announcement came hours before Trump was due to award Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the most prestigious US technology medal at a ceremony in Washington.

Trump named Vance earlier this year to lead an anti-fraud task force. The administration has also pressed a campaign against major US universities over alleged left-wing bias and antisemitism, including moves to freeze billions in federal funding for Harvard.