Microsoft has pushed back against the US government's decision to suspend it from a green-card sponsorship programme.
It said most of its H-1B filings involve existing staff and that new hires on the visa "equal only 1% of our U.S. workforce".
The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it was suspending Microsoft and several other firms from a programme that lets foreign workers on H-1B visas apply for green cards, accusing the company of fraud.
Adobe is among the other technology companies affected.
The move was announced by Vice President JD Vance, who said the programme requires employers to advertise jobs in America before applying to the Department of Labor to show they need to give a foreign worker a green card because of a lack of American workers.
Vance said Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers last year while obtaining 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards.
He described H-1B workers as effectively "foreign indentured servants", arguing they must leave the country if they lose their jobs and earn less than Americans in the same roles.
His message to the company was that it must hire American workers.
Microsoft said it looks forward to giving the administration more information. Of roughly 6,000 H-1B applications filed in the last fiscal year, 80% were to extend or change the status of current employees, not to hire new people, it said.
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The remaining filings for new staff were for people already legally in the US, who are "not new arrivals to our country".
The company said the vast majority of its US employees are Americans. It added that it pays some of the highest wages in the tech sector, and that H-1B staff are paid the same as other employees doing comparable work.
Microsoft added that it files H-1B petitions only for people who meet the visa's rigorous standards, and that its wages are among the highest of all H-1B filings.
It said it succeeds by strengthening the US talent pipeline, hiring American workers and drawing talent from around the world.
Microsoft ranks fifth among US employers in use of H-1B visas, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services data.
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Doug Rand, a former senior USCIS adviser in the Biden administration, called Vance's announcement "incoherent".
The action is part of a wider crackdown. It covers alleged abuse of H-1B and J-1 visas, and the administration also lashed out at universities that bring international students to the US on exchange programmes.
The H-1B route is widely used by Indian professionals in the technology sector, so any tightening is closely watched in India.
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