Microsoft announced a Voluntary Exit Offer on October 26, 2026, opening a buyout to approximately 60,000 employees. The company has not said whether workers holding an H-1B visa qualify.
The eligibility pool equals nearly 27% of the global workforce. It is not a 60,000-job reduction: the number of employees who accept remains unknown.
The offer applies to eligible workers at internal level 70 and below, within participating organizations. Those employees have until the first week of December to decide, and accepting workers are expected to leave by year-end.
Chief People Officer Amy Coleman announced the program in a staff memo. She described it as an option for employees considering a move outside the company, and a way for participating organizations to adjust their workforce.
“This offer gives eligible employees who may be considering a future outside the company a new choice to make that transition now with support. It also gives participating organizations another way to adapt their workforce to changing needs.”
November 2026 Final Action Dates
India China ROW EB-1 Feb 01, 2023 Aug 01, 2023 ▲31d Current EB-2 Nov 01, 2013 Oct 01, 2021 Apr 01, 2025 ▲90d EB-3 Jan 22, 2014 ▲21d Jan 22, 2022 ▲14d Jun 15, 2024 ▲31d F-1 Jan 22, 2021 ▲366d Jan 22, 2021 ▲366d Jan 22, 2021 ▲366d F-2A Oct 22, 2026 ▲30d Oct 22, 2026 ▲30d Oct 22, 2026 ▲30d
Coleman also called it new for the company and said, “We'll learn from it.” Visa-specific terms remain unresolved. The company has not said how many visa holders may be eligible or whether it will offer immigration-related assistance.
Eligibility varies by business unit and country
The offer reaches employees in four countries, but participation depends on the organization. The listed teams include several product and operational groups.
| Group or location | What the offer covers |
|---|---|
| United States, Canada, India and the United Kingdom | Eligible employees in participating organizations at level 70 and below |
| AI experiences, Copilot, CoreAI, Windows + Devices and Xbox | Participating teams |
| Finance and human resources | Participating teams |
| Some cloud, AI and legal teams | Participation varies by team |
| Marketing, commercial business, discovery, quantum and security | Not participating |
| Sales and some engineering groups | Sitting out, according to the company |
The company says business units decide which teams take part. Some accounts also described certain sales organizations, engineering teams and corporate units as excluded. Employees receive individualized offer information by email.
The buyout carries severance-style benefits, but acceptance is uncertain
The package includes base pay tied to tenure and level, continued stock vesting, limited healthcare coverage and career-transition services. Another description put the pay formula at one month of base salary for each completed year of service, along with health insurance.
Unlike the earlier voluntary retirement program, this offer does not depend on age, tenure or performance. Eligible employees in India reportedly have until December 1 to decide.
The company expects fewer workers to accept than the roughly 30% who took its spring retirement offer. That earlier program covered about 8,750 U.S. employees. No acceptance estimate has been given for the new offer.
Workforce cuts have continued this year. In July, the company eliminated about 4,800 jobs, roughly 2% of its global workforce, mostly in its Xbox gaming business. It laid off about 15,000 people last year.
A separate federal action has sharpened questions about sponsorship
On October 8, the Labor Department suspended the company, Adobe and six IT outsourcers from the PERM program, which employers use to sponsor foreign workers for green cards. The action did not cancel existing H-1B status, and no connection between the suspension and the exit offer has been reported.
Vice President JD Vance accused the company of abusing the system. He said it cut about 6,000 U.S. jobs last year while bringing in about 6,300 H-1B workers.
The company disputed that account, saying roughly four in five of its 6,000 or so H-1B filings last year covered workers already on its payroll. Brad Smith called the claims “completely off base.” The PERM suspension does not determine whether an individual employee may take the offer.
A job ending can start a limited period to change status or find a sponsor
USCIS allows certain H-1B workers a grace period of up to 60 days after paid employment ends, or until the I-94 expires, whichever comes first. The period may give a worker time to find another sponsor, change status or leave the country.
The clock starts the day after the last day of paid employment, rather than the last day at the office. Salary continuation can shift the start date. USCIS may shorten or deny the period, and workers can use it only once per H-1B validity period.
Manifest Law points technology workers to the O-1 visa as another possible route. It has no annual lottery or cap and no six-year maximum. An initial approval can last up to three years, with extensions in one-year increments.
A U.S. agent may file for work across multiple employers, but USCIS does not allow O-1 self-petition. The firm recommends filing Form I-129 at least 45 days before the intended start date.
The firm also noted layoffs among major employers: at least 15 of the 25 largest H-1B employers in fiscal year 2026 announced cuts in the last fifteen months. Its examples included Amazon, the company, Google, Meta, Oracle, TCS, Cognizant and Salesforce.
Online debate has focused on who might leave and what comes after
Ten anonymous Blind posts dated October 26 reflected competing views: some commenters preferred voluntary departures to layoffs, while others saw the offer as a possible precursor to cuts. One wrote, “So pay a bunch of American citizens to leave because we all know not a single H1B will take this offer.” Another asked, “In what rational world can companies do this and then petition the government claiming there's a labor shortage”.
Two X users argued over whether visa holders or U.S. workers should leave first. One post named H-1B, H-4 EAD, L-1, L-2 and F-1 workers, including people in contract roles, and argued they should be let go before U.S. employees. A reply claimed the company was trying to get Americans to accept the offer before laying off Indian workers.
Departure totals, cost and Texas effects remain undisclosed
The company’s fiscal 2026 annual report counted 223,000 full-time employees as of June 30, including 121,000 in the United States. That was five thousand fewer than the 228,000 reported twelve months earlier.
The company has not disclosed expected departures, the offer’s total cost, a detailed breakdown by location, its Texas impact or H-1B participation. It has not announced customer-service or product disruptions tied to the program. Of its approximately 23,000 employees in India, the number eligible also remains undisclosed.
The Department of Labor says genuinely voluntary departures under incentive programs do not count as employment losses for federal WARN purposes. No public WARN filing specifically tied to the offer had been identified, and the company has not released a Texas-specific eligibility or departure count.
Quarterly earnings are scheduled for Wednesday.
