Trump Admin Questions Microsoft’s H-1B Applications After Outage - Newsweek
Microsoft's use of the H-1B visa program was brought into question by the Trump administration again Friday, following the global outage of some of the company's services on Thursday.
"Outlook is back," Department of Labor Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito wrote on X. "Microsoft can process 6,000 H-1B applications, but processing your inbox is apparently a tougher assignment."
D'Esposito's post came as most services were restored Friday morning, including email via Outlook, which the company blamed on "a technical issue not related to cyber or AI/agents," in a statement shared to social media.
While it was not clear if staffing played a role in the outage or the length of time taken to get services back up and running, some social media posts saw questions about the company's decision to lay off thousands of workers in recent months.
"The service disruption was not related in any way to our immigration program," a Microsoft spokesperson told Newsweek in a statement.
The Trump administration has heavily criticized the tech giant for its decision to shed workers while still applying for high-skilled visas, in particular the H-1B. In October, Vice President JD Vance said the company's access to the visa-to-green card pipeline was being shut off, over concerns of defrauding American workers.
Newsweek reached out to Vance's office and the Department of Labor for comment on Friday.
While not the biggest user of the H-1B among tech companies, Microsoft has consistently used the program in recent years.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data for Fiscal Year 2025 showed that the company was approved for 6,258 H-1Bs, although some would have been renewals for existing visa holders. The previous year, the company had around 4,700 approvals, ranking it seventh out of the top 10 U.S. corporations using the program.
In 2025, amid layoffs of around 16,000 workers across the globe, Microsoft faced questions over why it was continuing to pursue H-1Bs for its immigrant workers.
"Layoffs while pursuing H-1B visas raise serious red flags. Our investigation remains active. We follow the evidence, not corporate excuses. American workers come first," D'Esposito said in a statement to Newsweek Friday afternoon.
The company has also used the Program Electronic Review Management (PERM) program to apply for green cards for its visa holders, until the Trump administration suspension in October.
Vance said on October 8 that companies seen as using the green card pathway to hire cheap labor and undercut American workers would have their access to the PERM program suspended, with Microsoft the leading name at that press conference alongside Adobe and Cognizant.
The vice president said that he supported Microsoft's efforts to thrive in the U.S., including through investments in the tech sector.
"We are the biggest boosters of your industry. We want you to continue to grow and to employ a lot of people, but we want you to employ American workers," Vance said. "And so, our message to Microsoft is you're a great American company, but you've got to hire great American workers."
Microsoft's president pushed back on the administration's view, saying in an interview with Politico a few days later that the reasoning for the suspension was "off base."
"What was presented, as Microsoft replacing 6,000 people who lost their jobs with 9,000 foreigners, was, frankly, completely off base," Brad Smith told the outlet. "The vast majority of both the visa applications and green card applications were not for new employees but for people who had already been working at Microsoft."
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Samantha Beech and Dave Siminoff.
