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Tech firms urge employees to return amid visa fee

confusion

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Trump's visa fee order causes panic among H-1B holders

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Debate over H-1B visa program's impact on U.S. labor

market

By Aditya Soni and Echo Wang

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Panic,

confusion, and anger reigned as workers on H-1B visas from India

and China were forced to abandon travel plans and rush back to

the U.S. after President Donald Trump imposed new visa fees, in

line with his wide-ranging immigration crackdown.

Tech companies and banks sent urgent memos to employees,

advising them to return before a deadline of 12:01 a.m. U.S.

Eastern Time Sunday (4:01 am GMT), and telling them not to leave

the country.

A White House official on Saturday clarified that the order

applied only to new applicants and not holders of existing visas

or those seeking renewals, addressing some of the confusion over

who would be affected by the order.

But Trump's proclamation a day before had already set off

alarm bells in Silicon Valley.

RUSH BACK TO U.S.

Fearing they would not be allowed back once the new rule

took effect, several Indian nationals at San Francisco airport

said they cut short vacations.

"It is a situation where we had to choose between family and

staying here," said an engineer at a large tech company whose

wife had been on an Emirates flight from San Francisco to Dubai

that was scheduled to depart at 5:05 p.m. local time (12:05 a.m.

GMT) on Friday.

The flight was delayed by more than three hours after

several Indian passengers who received news of the order or

memos from their employers demanded to deplane, said the person

who spoke on condition of anonymity. At least five passengers

were eventually allowed off, said the engineer.

A video of the incident was circulating on social media,

showing a few people leaving the plane. Reuters could not

independently verify the veracity of the video.

The engineer's wife, also a H-1B visa holder, chose to head

to India to care for her sick mother. "It's quite tragic. We

have built a life here," he told Reuters.

On the popular Chinese social media app Rednote, people on

H-1B visas shared their experiences of having to rush back to

the U.S. - in some cases just hours after landing in China or

another country.

Some likened the panic they felt to their experience during

the COVID-19 pandemic, when they urgently flew back to the U.S.

before a travel ban took effect.

"My feelings are a mix of disappointment, sadness, and

frustration," said one woman in a post with a user handle

"Emily's Life in NY."

The woman said she had boarded a United Airlines flight from

New York to Paris, which started taxing, but after some

back-and-forth with the airline the captain agreed to return to

the gate to let her off the aircraft.

Feeling what she described to Reuters as "insignificant" and

"shaken," she canceled the planned trip to France, abandoning

plans with friends, including some who were flying in from

China, after she received a letter from her company's lawyers

asking employees abroad to return to the U.S.

Companies including Microsoft ( MSFT ), Amazon ( AMZN ),

Alphabet and Goldman Sachs ( GS ) were among those

that sent urgent emails to their employees with travel

advisories.

TRUMP'S U-TURN ON H-1B

Since taking office in January, Trump has kicked off a

wide-ranging immigration crackdown, including moves to limit

some forms of legal immigration.

This step to reshape the H-1B visa program represents his

administration's most high-profile effort yet to rework

temporary employment visas and underscores what critics have

said is a protectionist agenda.

It is a U-turn from Trump's earlier stance when he sided

with one-time ally and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a public

dispute over the use of the H-1B visa, saying he fully backed

the program for foreign tech workers even though it was opposed

by some of his supporters.

Trump administration officials say the visa allows companies

to suppress wages, and curbing it opens more jobs for American

tech workers. Supporters of the program argue that it brings in

highly skilled workers essential to filling talent gaps and

keeping firms competitive.

In the hours following Trump's proclamation, social media

was flooded with debate on the scope of the order and dismay at

what many saw as a move that dimmed America's lure as an

attractive destination to work in.

An anonymous user on Rednote said their life was like that

of a "H-1B slave." The person cut short a holiday in Tokyo to

rush back to the United States, describing it as "a real-life

'Fast & Furious' return to the U.S.," a reference to the hit

Hollywood series about street racing.

Trump's H-1B proclamation read: "Some employers, using

practices now widely adopted by entire sectors, have abused the

H-1B statute and its regulations to artificially suppress wages,

resulting in a disadvantageous labor market for American

citizens."

The Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, could

exempt petitioners from the fee at her discretion, the

proclamation said.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Friday said companies

would have to pay $100,000 per year for H-1B worker visas.

However, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a

post on X on Saturday that this was not an annual fee, only a

one-time fee that applied to each petition.

A Nvidia ( NVDA ) engineer, who has lived in the U.S. for 10

years, told Reuters at the San Francisco airport that he had

been vacationing in Japan with his wife and infant when he

rushed to reschedule his return flight after hearing the news.

"It feels surreal," he said. "Everything is changing in an

instant."