After a six-week work journey Xiayun, an worker at a semiconductor firm in Silicon Valley, had landed at her hometown in China for trip when she noticed the information about H-1B visas. On Friday afternoon, US president Donald Trump signed a proclamation saying that any H-1B visa holder’s entry into the US might be “restricted, apart from these aliens whose petitions are accompanied or supplemented by a cost of $100,000.” The information left Xiayun and a whole lot of 1000’s of immigrant employees scrambling to determine how they’d be impacted and whether or not, in the event that they have been overseas, they need to return earlier than Sunday, when the brand new rule was set to take impact.
Xiayun, who requested to make use of her on-line alias and never point out her employer’s identify within the story to keep away from being recognized, claims she began receiving communications from her supervisor asking her to contemplate returning as quickly as attainable to keep away from being charged the payment. Earlier than she even met her household on the airport, she says she already determined to fly again to the US as quickly as attainable. She solely stayed in Urumqi for 2 hours earlier than hopping on the following flight again to California.
“I had appeared ahead to the chance of touring with my mother and father for a very long time, however the actuality is, I can’t depart behind my husband, my cat, my home, my pals, and my job within the US,” she tells WIRED.
H-1B is likely one of the commonest work visas, issued to expert employees searching for non permanent residence within the US so long as three years, with the opportunity of renewal offering persevering with employment. In 2019, the US Citizenship and Immigration Providers (USCIS) estimated that there have been over 580,000 immigrants holding H-1B visas within the nation. Silicon Valley firms are this system’s greatest customers, in keeping with information collected by USCIS on the employers who had probably the most H-1B visas authorised yearly. In Fiscal Yr 2025, the highest firms sponsoring for brand spanking new H-1B visas included Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Google.
By Friday night, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon had despatched pressing communications to international staff, in keeping with emails reviewed by WIRED, advising them to return to the states earlier than the Sunday deadline set within the proclamation.
Conflicting messages poured out of the White Home, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, and different authorities social media accounts. “Issues are altering each hour, each half-hour,” says Steven Brown, an immigration legal professional at Reddy Neumann Brown PC. Lutnick claimed the $100,000 payment can be charged yearly, others stated it’s a one-time cost; the unique proclamation didn’t exempt present visa holders, however the follow-up bulletins did. The contradictions and new developments left authorized immigrant employees, their households, and employers not sure what to consider over the previous weekend.
WIRED talked to 6 H-1B visa holders who made last-minute selections to return to the US from trip or work journeys earlier than the brand new coverage took maintain. All of them requested to be recognized with solely their first or final names on this story, fearing that talking out towards the administration will trigger retribution. Whereas explanations posted by the administration on Saturday afternoon clarified that almost all H-1B visa holders who have been exterior of the nation on the time didn’t truly must rush again, by then they declare that they had already misplaced 1000’s of {dollars} in altering their journey plans and spent two days in emotional stress.
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