Microsoft

#2 in America. 9,000 Layoffs. Thousands of Visas.

Microsoft Corporation is the second-largest H-1B visa sponsor in the United States, behind only Amazon. In FY2025, the company filed 9,362 Labor Condition Applications and had 6,258 H-1B petitions approved by USCIS. That's more than JPMorgan Chase, Capital One, and American Express combined.

In July 2025, Microsoft laid off approximately 9,000 employees as part of a global restructuring. Department of Labor records show that Microsoft had 14,181 foreign worker positions certified for FY2025. Vice President JD Vance publicly criticized the company: “I don't want companies to fire 9,000 American workers and then to go and say, ‘We can't find workers here in America.’”

Microsoft's response: the layoffs and visas were “in no way related” and 78% of FY2025 petitions were extensions for existing employees. But the optics are hard to escape. You don't get to fire thousands and import thousands in the same breath and call it a talent shortage.

Nearly 60,000 LCA Filings in Six Years

Between FY2020 and FY2025, Microsoft filed 59,779 Labor Condition Applications. The peak was FY2022 with 11,547 filings - a 57% surge over the prior year, coinciding with Microsoft's aggressive hiring push that grew headcount from 181,000 to 221,000.

Even after the tech hiring slowdown, volume never dropped below 8,000. FY2023 saw 9,611 filings. FY2024 bounced to 9,492. FY2025 held at 9,362. Microsoft maintains a steady pipeline of thousands of foreign worker applications every single year, regardless of whether they're simultaneously cutting headcount.

9,000 Out. Thousands In.

In July 2025, Microsoft announced the elimination of approximately 9,000 positions. The company framed it as restructuring - trimming management layers and realigning resources. Standard corporate language.

But federal records tell a different story. In the same fiscal year, Microsoft had 14,181 foreign worker positions certified by the Department of Labor. USCIS approved 6,258 H-1B petitions. That's nearly enough certified positions to replace every single person laid off. Microsoft says 78% were extensions for existing employees. Even if true, that leaves 22% - roughly 1,400 - that were new positions filled by foreign workers in a year where 9,000 employees were shown the door.

The Redmond Pipeline

Microsoft's H-1B filings are overwhelmingly concentrated in one place: Redmond, Washington. Roughly 17,067 LCA filings - over 66% of all applications - list Redmond as the worksite. No other company in this dataset has a more concentrated geographic footprint.

Mountain View, California is a distant second with about 1,629 filings. Atlanta, Georgia (1,012), Bellevue, Washington (682), and Irving, Texas (473) round out the top five. The pattern is clear: the vast majority of Microsoft's H-1B workforce funnels through one campus in the Seattle metro area, where the BLS median salary for software developers is $133,840 - and Microsoft's average H-1B offer of $171,891 sits 28% above that baseline.

$171,891 - Above Market, Below Big Tech Peers

Microsoft's average H-1B salary of $171,891 in FY2025 is 32% above the BLS national median for software developers ($130,160). That sounds generous. But in context, it's the second-lowest among the Big Tech companies tracked - about $33,500 below Meta's $205,348 average.

The salary distribution tells the story. In FY2024, 58% of Microsoft's H-1B positions fell between $150,000 and $200,000. Another 29% were between $100,000 and $150,000. Only 13% exceeded $200,000. These are not exotic, hard-to-fill roles commanding premium compensation. This is volume hiring at mid-senior engineering pay scales.

“Software Engineering” - Two-Thirds of Everything

Microsoft uses an unusual convention for H-1B job titles. Instead of only using the standard “Software Engineer,” many filings list “Software Engineering” as the job title - a category rather than a position. Together, “Software Engineer” (25,195 filings) and “Software Engineering” (10,356 filings) account for 35,551 applications - about 58% of all Microsoft H-1B filings across every fiscal year.

Add “Data and Applied Scientist” (1,851), “Program Manager” (1,186), and “Senior Program Manager” (1,124), and five job categories cover roughly 65% of the entire H-1B operation. There are 1.8 million software developers in the United States. This is not a talent shortage. This is a pipeline.

3,160 PERM Filings - The Lock-In

In FY2025 alone, Microsoft filed 3,160 PERM (green card) applications. India dominates the applicant pool with 9,841 filings across all years. The top field of study is Computer Science (5,425 filings) and the majority require a Master's degree.

The PERM process is the fourth step in the playbook. File at scale. Pay the floor. Route to low-cost cities. Then sponsor green cards. The worker can't leave during the multi-year green card process without restarting from zero. Their immigration status is tied to their employer. That's not a perk. That's a leash.

DOJ Settlement - Discrimination in Hiring

In December 2021, the Department of Justice settled with Microsoft over allegations the company discriminated against lawful permanent residents, refugees, and asylees during hiring. Between February 2018 and January 2020, Microsoft required these workers to unnecessarily reverify their employment authorization - a violation of federal anti-discrimination law.

Microsoft agreed to pay a civil penalty, overhaul its hiring practices, and submit to DOJ training. The settlement followed a pattern: a major tech company caught treating immigration status as a sorting mechanism for who gets hired and who doesn't. Different from Meta's $14 million PERM discrimination fine, but the same underlying dynamic. Immigration status as a tool for workforce management.

One Entity. No Place to Hide.

Unlike Amazon, which fragments its H-1B filings across 20+ legal entities, Microsoft files virtually everything under a single name: Microsoft Corporation. No subsidiary shell game. No entity fragmentation to dilute the visible filing count.

That transparency - whether intentional or not - makes the scale immediately visible. When you search USCIS or DOL for “Microsoft Corporation,” you see the full picture. 9,362 LCA filings. 6,258 approved petitions. 228,000 employees. The numbers are right there in the federal records, filed under one name.

The Bottom Line

Microsoft is the #2 H-1B sponsor in America. It filed 59,779 LCA applications in six years. It laid off 9,000 workers while holding thousands of active visa applications. Two-thirds of its H-1B filings are for generic software engineering roles that 1.8 million Americans already do. It concentrates 66% of its H-1B workforce at a single campus in Redmond, Washington. And it uses the PERM program to file thousands of green card applications per year, locking workers into a multi-year dependency on their employer.

This is not a company struggling to find talent. This is a company running a labor pipeline at industrial scale - and the federal government approves 98-99% of everything they file.