{"id":12909,"date":"2025-09-22T10:56:37","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T02:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=12909"},"modified":"2025-09-22T10:56:42","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T02:56:42","slug":"trumps-100000-h-1b-visa-fee-sets-off-scramble-across-corporate-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=12909","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee Sets Off Scramble Across Corporate America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"512\" src=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1-17.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12910\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1-17.jpg 768w, https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1-17-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">President Trump in the Oval Office on Friday.\u00a9\u00a0Aaron Schwartz\/Press Pool<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The White House raced to calm panicked tech executives over the weekend after President Trump\u2019s changes to the popular H-1B visa plunged the program into chaos. The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/politics\/policy\/trump-to-add-100-000-fee-to-h-1b-visas-e41ffe48\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announcement on Friday<\/a>\u00a0that the administration planned to add a new $100,000 annual fee for H-1B visa applications beginning at 12:01 a.m. ET Sunday caught companies and employees off guard, setting off a wave of anxiety and confusion. Many feared they would have to pay the fee for existing H-1B holders trying to return to the country after that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Amazon, Alphabet\u2019s Google, Microsoft and others warned&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/economy\/jobs\/the-visas-dividing-maga-world-help-power-the-u-s-tech-industry-93b77afe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">H-1B holders<\/a>&nbsp;not to leave the U.S. and urged employees overseas on the visa to return on Saturday because it could be difficult to re-enter, according to notes sent to staff reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and people familiar with their contents. Companies worried they could be on the hook for enormous fee payments given how many of their employees use such visas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Human-resources staffers divided up lists of workers and tried to determine employees\u2019 locations so they could help them book flights, if needed. Immigration lawyers, meanwhile, sent bulletins to companies and visa holders and tried to address concerns\u2014but often found themselves with few answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Attempting to calm the escalating panic, the White House on Saturday said the changes only apply to new visas, not renewals, current visa holders or 2025 lottery winners. The new policy doesn\u2019t affect the ability of existing visa holders to travel to and from the U.S., and the $100,000 is a one-time\u2014not annual\u2014fee, the White House added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some workers said they still remain uneasy about leaving the country and are uncertain what comes next. One said his H-1B status doesn\u2019t go into effect for several weeks. The clarifying guidance from the White House provided some initial relief, but he said he still wouldn\u2019t risk traveling to visit family in India. His mother has heart problems, and he fears needing to choose between the career he\u2019s spent years building and being with his family should an emergency occur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some immigration specialists said they expect the Trump administration\u2019s move is just the beginning of more changes likely to affect H-1B holders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe believe this is just step one on the government\u2019s attack on the H-1B program,\u201d said Shanon R. Stevenson, co-chair of the immigration practice group at law firm Fisher Phillips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When the president announced the move on Friday in the Oval Office, he and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said companies would support the change. \u201cAll of the big companies are on board,\u201d Lutnick said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When asked if the policy would apply to existing visa holders, Lutnick appeared to say yes. \u201cRenewals, first time: the company needs to decide\u2026Is the person valuable enough to have a $100,000 a year payment to the government? Or they should head home and go hire an American,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">H-1B workers said winning the visa lottery feels like a landmark moment, one that often comes after years of paperwork, hefty fees and waiting periods. But some H-1B workers said the regulations as initially announced essentially amounted to a travel ban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Saturday\u2019s clarification from the White House capped an extraordinary 24-hour period. The proclamation \u201ccame with no notice or even a hint that something like this was coming,\u201d said Stevenson, who spent much of Saturday fielding calls and emails from clients in fields ranging from healthcare to manufacturing. \u201cIt\u2019s been obviously very devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many employers were still digesting the announcement when the White House issued its clarification. By then, companies had already set new plans in motion and many workers had upended travel plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tech-services firm Cognizant urged any employees on H-1B visas outside the U.S. to return before the proclamation took effect. Microsoft told employees: \u201cIf you are in H-1B status and are in the U.S., you should remain in the U.S. for the foreseeable future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Google and Microsoft declined to comment, while Amazon didn\u2019t respond. A Cognizant spokeswoman said the company had reduced its dependency on visas in recent years and stepped up local hiring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hiba Anver, a partner at Erickson Immigration Group, a law firm based in Arlington, Va., said one client was on a cruise in international waters, while others were having difficulty finding flights to the U.S. before the White House issued its clarification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey\u2019re trying to figure out if it\u2019s better for them to get to Guam or Hawaii, just out of sheer desperation because it\u2019s not that easy to be able to find immediate international flights back to the U.S. depending on where you are,\u201d Anver said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Posts across social media attested to travel chaos, with people describing being pulled from meetings and immediately sent to the airport. Some travelers were trying to connect through Abu Dhabi, where they can pass through U.S. immigration before arriving in America. Others said they were canceling trips out of the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey\u2019re truly in scramble mode,\u201d said Nolan Church, the former head of talent at DoorDash and chief people officer at Carta, who said text threads flashed all night from executives at other companies. Many expected a policy change, but what appeared to be a short window to get employees back in the country presented a significant logistical challenge: \u201cThis is going to sound hyperbolic, but it\u2019s not\u2014they\u2019re trying to make sure families aren\u2019t getting separated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Church, now an executive recruiter, said one of his contacts assigned each HR staff member dozens of H-1B employees to track down, \u201cviciously texting them\u201d to determine their locations. If any are out of the country, \u201cthey are going to move heaven and earth\u201d to return them to the U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The White House raced to calm panicked tech executives over the weekend after President Trump\u2019s changes to the popular H-1B visa plunged the program into chaos. The\u00a0announcement on Friday\u00a0that the administration planned to add a new $100,000 annual fee for H-1B visa applications beginning at 12:01 a.m. ET Sunday caught companies and employees off guard, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":12910,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1724],"class_list":["post-12909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usa","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Trump\u2019s $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee Sets Off Scramble Across Corporate America - LISTEN WORLD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=12909\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump\u2019s $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee Sets Off Scramble Across Corporate America - LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The White House raced to calm panicked tech executives over the weekend after President Trump\u2019s changes to the popular H-1B visa plunged the program into chaos. The\u00a0announcement on Friday\u00a0that the administration planned to add a new $100,000 annual fee for H-1B visa applications beginning at 12:01 a.m. ET Sunday caught companies and employees off guard, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=12909\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-22T02:56:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-22T02:56:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1-17.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sddm0805\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/\",\"name\":\"LISTEN WORLD\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=12909#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1-17.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1-17.jpg\",\"width\":768,\"height\":512},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=12909#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=12909\",\"name\":\"Trump\u2019s $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee Sets Off Scramble Across Corporate America - LISTEN WORLD\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=12909#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-22T02:56:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-22T02:56:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#\/schema\/person\/401cf16edf5abe8109bc4f81d40e2298\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=12909#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=12909\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=12909#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"\u9996\u9875\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Trump\u2019s $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee Sets Off Scramble Across Corporate America\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#\/schema\/person\/401cf16edf5abe8109bc4f81d40e2298\",\"name\":\"sddm0805\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b923aee309f3523e57a0208042f74bc6f6899d4ce27b86964e2e49bf87805ff1?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b923aee309f3523e57a0208042f74bc6f6899d4ce27b86964e2e49bf87805ff1?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g\",\"caption\":\"sddm0805\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?author=11\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Trump\u2019s $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee Sets Off Scramble Across Corporate America - LISTEN WORLD","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=12909","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Trump\u2019s $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee Sets Off Scramble Across Corporate America - LISTEN WORLD","og_description":"The White House raced to calm panicked tech executives over the weekend after President Trump\u2019s changes to the popular H-1B visa plunged the program into chaos. 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