The tech sector and other companies rushed to warn employees with H-1B visas against foreign travel as they responded to the chaos created by US President Donald Trump’s move to slap a US$100,000 application fee on the widely used program.
Microsoft Corp, Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc and other tech companies sent messages to affected employees telling them to return to the US on Saturday and cancel any plans to depart the country after the White House on Friday said that the new rules were to go into effect yesterday.
A White House official on Saturday clarified that the fee only affects new visas — not renewals or current visa holders — and would be applied in the upcoming lottery cycle.
Photo: Reuters
Later on Saturday afternoon, a White House account on X posted a message saying that Trump’s announcement does not apply to current visa holders.
“The Proclamation does not impact the ability of any current visa holder to travel to/from the US,” it added.
Even so, the uncertainties surrounding how the change would be applied and enforced caused confusion and consternation among companies across the US and is prompting firms and immigration lawyers to urge current visa holders to be careful.
Microsoft updated guidance to its employees that clarifications by the White House “should ensure the ability to return home to the US for our colleagues who are currently traveling internationally for important life events” and for those with upcoming travel plans to proceed.
There remains a possibility of “some confusion over the next few days at ports of entry,” it added.
Meanwhile, Amazon warned holders of H-4 dependent visas, which are for spouses and dependents of H-1B visas, to remain in the US.
The H-1B visa program is used heavily by the tech sector, which uses the visa program to bring in skilled workers from abroad. Finance companies and consulting firms also use the program.
Companies with the greatest number of H-1B visas are Amazon, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Microsoft, Meta Platforms Inc and Apple Inc, while JPMorgan Chase & Co and Walmart Inc ranked eighth and ninth, US government data showed.
Each year, employers file petitions by March for a lottery in April, with 65,000 visas available plus 20,000 for US master’s graduates. This year, more than 470,000 applications were submitted, and approved workers can start on Wednesday next year.
Ernst & Young LLP told its visa holders to return on Saturday to the US.
“Our continued guidance is to limit international travel where possible regardless of visa type,” the company said, adding that further changes and travel restrictions are possible.
Walmart issued similar guidance in a memo to employees, adding that it was continuing to “interpret recent changes to H-1B visa policy” and sharing guidance “out of an abundance of caution.”
The company wrote that “until the situation and intention of the executive order was clear,” it recommended that employees holding the visas not depart the US.
Rakhel Milstein, an immigration lawyer who founded Milstein Law Group, said she expects “complete chaos” after spending all night on calls with visa holders at tech firms, non-profit groups and other companies.
“We have clients who have just gotten their visa stamps at the consulates in India, and now they’re going to get their passport back on Monday,” she said. “Does this mean they can’t come back?”
Milstein said she expects that the new policy would be challenged immediately in court and that a swift injunction is likely.
The Trump administration cast the changes as part of a broader plan to bolster legitimate applications while weeding out abuses. However, companies are quietly worried that the US$100,000 price tag would prove unsustainable for their hiring needs.
In speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump brushed off a question about whether technology company executives would be concerned with the action.
“I think they’re going to be very happy. Everyone’s going to be happy, and we’re going to be able to keep people in our country that are going to be very productive people,” Trump said. “And in many cases these companies are going to pay a lot of money for that and they’re very happy about it.”
DAMAGE REPORT: Global central banks are assessing war-driven inflation risks as the law of unintended consequences careens around the world, spiking oil prices Central banks from Washington to London and from Jakarta to Taipei are about to make their first assessments of economic damage after more than two weeks of conflict between the US and Iran. Decisions this week encompassing every member of the G7 and eight of the world’s 10 most-traded currency jurisdictions are likely to confirm to investors that the specter of a new inflation shock is already worrying enough to prompt heightened caution. The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to do exactly what everyone anticipated weeks ahead of its March 17-18 policy gathering: hold rates steady. The narrative surrounding that
PRICE HIKES: The war in the Middle East would not significantly disrupt supply in the short term, but semiconductor companies are facing price surges for materials Taiwan’s semiconductor companies are not facing imminent supply disruptions of essential chemicals or raw materials due to the war in the Middle East, but surges in material costs loom large, industry association SEMI Taiwan said yesterday. The association’s comments came amid growing concerns that supplies of helium and other key raw materials used in semiconductor production could become a choke point after Qatar shut down its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and helium output earlier this month due to the conflict. Qatar is the second-largest LNG supplier in the world and accounts for about 33 percent of global helium output. Helium is
About 1,000 participants, including more than 200 venture capitalists, joined the Taiwan Demo Day in Silicon Valley on Saturday, the largest iteration to date of the event held ahead of Nvidia Corp’s annual GPU Technology Conference which runs from today to Thursday. Taiwan Demo Day, co-organized by the Taiwan Next Foundation and the Startup Island Taiwan Silicon Valley Hub, took place at the Computer History Museum in California, showcasing 12 teams focused on physical artificial intelligence (AI) and agentic AI technologies. Katie Hsieh (謝凱婷), founder of the Taiwan Next Foundation, said the event highlighted the strength of the Taiwan-US start-up ecosystem, with
DOMESTIC COMPONENT: Huang identified several Taiwanese partners to be a key part of Nvidia’s Vera Rubin supply chain, including Asustek, Hon Hai and Wistron Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), addressing crowds at the company’s biggest annual event, unveiled a variety of new products while predicting that its flagship artificial intelligence (AI) processors would help generate US$1 trillion in sales through next year. During a two-and-a-half-hour keynote address, Huang announced plans to push deeper into central processing units (CPUs) — Intel Corp’s home turf — and introduced semiconductors made with technology acquired from start-up Groq Inc. The company even said it was developing chips for data centers in outer space. At the heart of Huang’s speech was the message that demand for computing power
RSS