A ‘Fast and Furious’ Return to the US: How Trump’s H-1B Visa Fee Is Causing Chaos

Reuters, San Francisco/New York, September 21 — As part of his extensive immigration crackdown, President Donald Trump imposed increased visa costs, causing workers on H-1B visas from China and India to cancel their travel plans and return to the United States in a frenzy of bewilderment, rage, and panic.

Employees received urgent emails from banks and IT businesses warning them not to leave the nation and urging them to return by a deadline of 12:01 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time on Sunday (4:01 a.m. GMT).

Addressing some of the ambiguity surrounding who would be impacted by the order, a White House official stressed on Saturday that the directive only applied to new applications and not to holders of existing visas or those seeking renewals.
However, Silicon Valley was already alarmed by Trump’s declaration the day before.

Expert on H-1B Visa Policy Impact:

SPEED BACK TO THE U.S.

Several Indian nationals at the San Francisco airport reported cutting short their holidays because they were afraid they would not be permitted to return after the new regulation went into force.
An engineer at a major software business whose wife had been on an Emirates aircraft from San Francisco to Dubai that was set to depart at 5:05 p.m. local time (12:05 a.m. GMT) on Friday said, “It is a situation where we had to choose between family and staying here.”

According to the person who spoke on condition of anonymity, a number of Indian passengers who learned of the order or memos from their companies wanted to disembark, causing the flight to be delayed by over three hours. The engineer said that at least five passengers were eventually permitted to disembark.

A few people were seen exiting the plane in a video of the incident that was making the rounds on social media. Reuters was unable to independently confirm the video’s authenticity.
In order to take care of her ailing mother, the engineer’s wife, who also holds an H-1B visa, decided to travel to India. “It’s really tragic. Here, we have established a life,” he told Reuters.
People on H-1B visas talked about their experiences of having to return to the United States quickly, often within hours of being in China or another country, on the well-known Chinese social networking app Rednote.

Some compared the panic to their own experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, when they had to return to the United States immediately before a travel ban was implemented.
One woman said, “My feelings are a mix of disappointment, sadness, and frustration,” in a post under the user name “Emily’s Life in NY.”
The woman claimed that after a lengthy back and forth with the airline, the captain decided to come back to the gate and release her from the aircraft after she boarded a United Airlines flight from New York to Paris and it began taxing.

Feeling “insignificant” and “shaken,” she canceled her planned trip to France and left behind plans with friends, some of whom were flying in from China, after receiving a letter from her company’s lawyers requesting that foreign employees return to the United States. Among the companies that sent urgent emails to their employees with travel advisories were Microsoft (MSFT.O), Amazon (AMZN.O), Alphabet (GOOGL.O), and Goldman Sachs (GS.N).

TRUMP’S H-1B U-TURN

Trump has launched a broad immigration crackdown since taking office in January, which includes actions to restrict certain types of lawful immigration.
His administration’s most prominent attempt to reform temporary employment visas to date is this move to restructure the H-1B visa program, which highlights what detractors have called a protectionist agenda.
In a public battle over the use of the H-1B visa, Trump reversed his earlier position and sided with Tesla (TSLA.O) and former ally Elon Musk, claiming he fully supported the program for foreign tech workers despite opposition from some of his fans.

Officials from the Trump administration claim that by restricting the visa, more jobs for American tech workers will become available. The program’s proponents contend that it attracts highly qualified personnel who are necessary to close talent shortages and maintain businesses’ competitiveness.
The scope of the order and outrage over what many perceived as a move that diminished America’s appeal as a desirable place to work were hot topics on social media in the hours after Trump’s pronouncement.
One Rednote user, who wished to remain anonymous, described their existence as that of a “H-1B slave.” The individual shortened a vacation in Tokyo in order to return to the United States quickly, calling it “a real-life ‘Fast & Furious’ return to the U.S.,” a reference to the popular street racing television series from Hollywood.

According to the proclamation, applicants may be excluded from the charge at the discretion of Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
On Friday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that businesses will be required to pay $100,000 annually for H-1B worker visas.

However, in a post on X on Saturday, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt stated that this was a one-time cost that was applied to every new petition and was not an annual price.
According to federal data, India accounted for 71% of all H-1B visas granted last year, making it the top recipient. China came in second at 11.7%.

Rohan Singh, a manufacturing engineer in North Carolina, canceled his trip to India due to the confusion. The 30-year-old stated, “H-1B visa holders are in a panic because we don’t know what’s coming up.”
After hearing the news, a 10-year U.S. resident and new tab engineer at Nvidia (NVDA.O) told Reuters at the San Francisco airport that he had been on vacation in Japan with his wife and baby when he hurried to reschedule his return flight.

He remarked, “It feels surreal,” “Everything changes so quickly.”
Additional reporting by Haripriya Suresh and Rishika Sadam in India; writing by Sayantani Ghosh; editing by Michael Perry; reporting by Aditya Soni in San Francisco and Echo Wang in New York.