Microsoft's president, Brad Smith, raised concerns with reporters that restrictions on green card sponsorship for skilled workers — a policy put in place during the Trump administration — left the technology industry exposed to the possibility of overseas employers drawing away its workforce. Those comments came as Microsoft and seven other companies found themselves barred from accessing a visa-sponsorship pathway through which foreign workers can apply for permanent residency.
In a Dublin interview, Smith contested assertions made by Vice President JD Vance that Microsoft had taken advantage of the H-1B visa programme to import foreign labour rather than pay competitive wages to domestic tech workers. Smith added that both government and industry should remain alert to any signals — intentional or otherwise — that might push the next generation of talented AI and software engineers toward opportunities abroad.
Vance has put forward the position that Microsoft relies on the H-1B visa programme to bring in workers from abroad in place of domestic job candidates. In a written statement, Smith pushed back on the allegations, describing them as entirely without merit and contending that data tied to the firm's hiring practices and immigration procedures had been inaccurately portrayed.
The bulk of those green card filings, Smith noted, covered personnel who had already spent considerable time on the company's payroll. He attributed the volume of filings to how lengthy the wait for US permanent residency had become.
Smith went on to deny that foreign-born workers at the company received lower pay than their domestically born counterparts, pointing to a uniform compensation framework applied across the workforce without regard to how any individual arrived at employment there — whether through a visa pathway or as a citizen. Over the course of the most recent fiscal year, the company's workforce included upwards of 9,000 people based in the United States, Smith pointed out.
In remarks that put a spotlight on entrepreneurship and technological advancement, Smith made the case that people who had immigrated to the United States played a meaningful part in driving those outcomes. Five of the six recipients of technology and science honours presented by the president were born outside the United States, according to that account, with those five individuals and their combined business holdings said to account for more than a quarter of the S&P 500's total market capitalisation. Smith urged that the gains already made should not be placed in jeopardy.
Under the Employment-Based Green Card pathway — commonly known as PERM — an employer is first required to demonstrate that no qualified domestic workers are available to take on a given position before moving forward with sponsoring a foreign national for permanent residency. Holders of current H-1B visas retain their status under the suspension, and businesses seeking to bring on workers already holding that authorisation face no blanket bar on doing so.
Though Smith took issue with certain immigration-related restrictions, export controls placed on AI models stood out as an area where the administration's approach to securing artificial intelligence drew his backing.
