Free Republic

Paridhi Upadhaya was packing her bags after securing a computer science scholarship in the US until headlines of President Donald Trump's H-1B visa crackdown last week prompted her family in Lucknow to scrap the plan. "Trump's unending onslaught against immigrants is forcing us to consider other destinations for her," the 18-year-old's father, Rudar Pratap said. Upadhaya is among thousands of Indians for whom the American dream of world-class education, lucrative careers, better quality of life and social mobility, is turning sour due to rising U.S. visa restrictions and policy unpredictability. For decades, the H-1B visa has been the gateway to...

In another challenging development for Indian professionals in America, H-1B visas and green card processing is set to be affected as the US government shut down on Wednesday. The shutdown came after President Donald Trump’s Republicans and the opposition Democrats were unable to agree on a congressional budget bill that would fund the government. Immigration lawyers told HT that the shutdown, which ends funding for non-essential government services, will particularly impact new applicants for H-1B visas and employment-based green cards. This development came after the Trump administration announced a new $100,000 H-1B visa application fee for new applicants. The fee...

After US President Donald Trump and Congress failed to reach a funding deal by Wednesday's deadline, the government shutdown began. As a result, hundreds of thousands of federal employees face furloughs, and many offices will be closed. H-1B visas will also face a pause until the shutdown ends, says immigration attorney Nicole Gunara. She said that H-1B visa filings will not be processed until the Congress can agree on federal funding allocations.

Apoorva arrived in New York in 2018 on an H-1B visa, fresh from one of India’s top graduate schools and brimming with hope of building a life in the United States. She soon joined an architecture firm, eager to contribute her skills and establish roots. But her dreams were quickly dashed — because Apoorva, like many other immigrants on an H-1B, soon experienced some visa-related issues. She recalled being stuck at her minimum wage architecture job for over three years. Changing jobs on an H-1B visa is famously difficult, and often means enduring months of bureaucratic limbo and steep United...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) are scrutinizing major corporations for filing thousands of H-1B skilled labor visa petitions after conducting mass layoffs of American employees. “In evaluating the high unemployment rate for American tech workers, we cannot ignore the massive, ongoing layoffs ordered by you and your peers in Big Tech C-suites over the past few years … At the same time you have been laying off your employees, you have been filing H-1B visa petitions for [thousands of] foreign workers,” Grassley and Durbin wrote in letters to 10 major employers in...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) are reintroducing bipartisan legislation to reform and close loopholes in the H-1B and L-1 visa programs. The H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act targets fraud and abuse in our immigration system, provides protections for American workers and visa holders and enhances transparency in the foreign worker recruitment process. Grassley and Durbin have long partnered to improve the H-1B visa system and first introduced their bipartisan legislation in 2007. Last week, the senators sent letters to 10 major U.S. employers, including Amazon, Google and Meta, scrutinizing their heavy...

Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today introduced the Visa Cap Enforcement Act. This bill restricts the ability of universities, research institutions, and non-profits to hire an unlimited number of foreign workers. “Colleges and universities shouldn’t get special treatment for bringing in woke and anti-American professors from around the world. My bill closes these loopholes that universities have abused for far too long,” said Senator Cotton. Text of the bill can be found here. The Visa Cap Enforcement Act would: Eliminate four exemptions to the H-1B visa cap, including one for foreigners who hold a master’s degree or higher from a U.S....

Florida politician Anthony Sabatini has sparked debate over the H-1B visa row, tweeting a call for “a complete and total shutdown.” The move comes in the wake of President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement of a $100,000 fee on new H-1B applications, aimed at curbing alleged abuses of the program. Far-right politician Sabatini on Monday tweeted, “I am calling for a complete and total shutdown of H-1 B visas until we can find out what is going on.” His tweet went viral in no time, given the ongoing debate surrounding the H-1B visa and its impact on the American workforce and...

Florida politician Anthony Sabatini has called for a complete halt to the H-1B visa program, saying the government needs to review how it operates. In a tweet on Monday, he wrote, “I am calling for a complete and total shut down of h-1b visas until we can find out what is going on.” Sabatini framed the move as a defence of American workers, amid growing concern among some conservatives that the program displaces US employees and affects wages. The H-1B visa program, which allows US companies to hire skilled foreign workers, currently includes an estimated 600,000–700,000 visa holders, with a...

-snip- Many H-1B visas are awarded to foreign graduates of U.S. universities. Visa holders can generally stay in the country for up to three years, with an additional three-year extension, and H-1Bs have the additional benefit of being able to be converted into a green card. That’s a common path foreign professionals use to establish permanent citizenship, Glennon said. How does Trump want to change the H-1B program? During the COVID-19 pandemic and near the end of his first term, Trump suspended the H-1B visa program, saying he wanted Americans to be able to find jobs in a fragile labor...

The Trump administration has launched Project Firewall, a major initiative to curb H-1B visa misuse and prioritise American workers for high-paying, skilled jobs. This move signals a shift toward stricter enforcement and could reshape opportunities for both domestic and foreign professionals. The move comes amid rising concerns over the exploitation of the H-1B programme. According to a January 2025 report by fwd.us, the US hosts roughly 730,000 H-1B visa holders along with 550,000 dependents. Critics have long argued that some companies use the program to hire cheaper foreign talent, often at the expense of qualified American professionals. This initiative follows...