'Fast and furious': H-1B workers abroad race to US as Trump order sparks dismay, confusion

San Francisco/New York: 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 US 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 am US Eastern Time Sunday 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 US

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 pm local time 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 US.

Companies including Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Goldman Sachs 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 US," a reference to the hit Hollywood series about street racing.

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 new petition.

India was the largest beneficiary of H-1B visas last year, accounting for 71% of approved beneficiaries, while China was a distant second at 11.7%, according to government data.

Amid the confusion, Rohan Singh, who works as a manufacturing engineer in North Carolina, cancelled his plan to visit India. "There is panic among H-1B visa holders because we do not know what’s ahead," the 30-year-old said.

A Nvidia 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.”