Trump's H-1B visa fee sparks chaos and confusion among Chinese talents in the U.S.

Anger and disorder gripped Chinese professionals successful the U.S. aft White House person Donald Trump slapped hefty fees connected caller enactment visas, deepening anxiousness among those seeking to physique careers stateside.

Last Friday, the Trump medication said that it would inquire companies to wage $100,000 for caller H-1B visa applicants. A slew of tech firms and banks including Microsoft, JPMorgan and Amazon responded to the announcements by advising employees holding the H-1B visas to enactment successful the country.

The White House has present clarified that the caller regularisation lone applies to caller H-1B applicants, not to existent visa holders oregon to those seeking to renew their permits.

While the U.S. authorities whitethorn currency successful connected a windfall from the visa interest hike successful the adjacent term, the caller argumentation volition astir surely deter Chinese students from pursuing a grade oregon vocation successful the U.S., said Xinbo Wu, manager of Fudan University's Center for American Studies successful Shanghai.

India was the largest beneficiary of H-1B visas past year, accounting for 71% of approved visa holders, with China arsenic a distant 2nd astatine 11.7%, according to the U.S. homeland information data.

The astir communal manufacture among employers of H-1B workers past twelvemonth was the professional, technological and method services sector, wrong which the largest conception of beneficiaries progressive those providing machine programming services.

Shortly aft Trump's announcement of the enforcement order, galore Chinese radical took to a societal media app Xiaohongshu to stock their experiences of having to unreserved backmost to the U.S. aft proceeding the quality oregon receiving recommendations from their employers.

Many radical had to chopped abbreviated their abrogation plans oregon canceled their trips altogether, fearing that they whitethorn not beryllium allowed backmost erstwhile the caller rules took effect.

A pistillate with the idiosyncratic sanction "Emily successful New York" said connected the app that she had boarded a United Airlines formation from New York to Paris past Friday, and that the level was taxiing connected the runway erstwhile she received the quality of the caller order. After negotiating with the crewmembers, she said she managed to get disconnected the plane.

She canceled her trip, readying to scrap her question altogether earlier rebooking again erstwhile she realized the caller regularisation didn't impact existent visa holders.

"It was 48 hours of helplessness and frustration," she said, "moments similar this showed however the chaos successful the satellite tin upend idiosyncratic lives astatine immoderate time," according to a CNBC translation.

CNBC could not independently verify her report.

The announcement marked the Trump administration's astir assertive measurement yet to curb immigration, peculiarly targeting endowment inflows from China. Earlier this year, the Trump medication threatened to revoke the visas of Chinese students amid a tit-for-tat with Beijing, earlier reversing the restrictions arsenic tensions eased.

The fig of Chinese students successful the U.S. dropped to astir 277,000 successful 2024, however, from a precocious of astir 373,000 successful 2019 amid increasing hostility betwixt the world's 2 biggest economies, heightened U.S. authorities scrutiny of Chinese students, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

More students are considering alternate destinations similar Hong Kong and Singapore for higher education, said Sam Lin, laminitis of acquisition bureau Fujian Visionary Education, with a increasing fig switching gears and revisiting taking China's nationalist exam to participate section universities.

"Trump's erratic policies person made students and parents much cautious and anxious erstwhile readying their studies, but galore person besides realized his threats often dependable much melodramatic than they really are," Lin said. "These steps whitethorn not beryllium intended to beryllium carried retired connected the standard that the medication suggested."

Questions linger implicit however the caller visa interest rules volition beryllium implemented.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick connected Friday said that companies would person to pay $100,000 per year for H-1B enactment visa holders, but White House Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt aboriginal noted successful a Saturday station connected X that this was magnitude was not an yearly fee, but a one-time outgo that would beryllium applied to each petition.

On Saturday, a White House authoritative clarified that the bid applied lone to caller applicants and not to holders of existing visas oregon to those seeking licence renewals.

"For those waiting for their archetypal H-1B to beryllium filed, the caller interest creates a steep and contiguous barrier," said Akshat Divatia, an migration lawyer astatine Seattle-based instrumentality steadfast Harris Sliwoski, noting that immoderate petition submitted aft the effectual deadline of midnight EST connected Sept. 21 volition incur the surcharge.

"For companies, the regularisation is not a retroactive taxation connected existent H-1B employees but an up-front hiring outgo for caller cap-subject hires," helium said, adding that the $100,000 interest forces businesses to rethink "whether each caller prosecute is worthy specified a steep up-front investment."

"For ample multinationals, that mightiness mean shifting much enactment offshore oregon limiting U.S. sponsorship to lone the astir elder oregon specialized roles. For startups and mid-sized firms, galore of whom already agelong to screen ineligible and filing fees, the terms tag whitethorn instrumentality H-1B hiring disconnected the array altogether," said Divatia.

The latest measures besides nonstop the U.S. authorities to rise the prevailing wage levels to "upskill" the programme and reshape the lottery system by prioritizing high-paid, high-skilled roles implicit entry-level positions — pushing employers to usage the H-1B programme for a "narrow set of elite, high-compensation jobs," said Divatia.

The latest connection sent shockwaves done immoderate of the largest American tech and concern companies implicit the weekend.

Amazon employed the largest fig of H-1B visa holders — much than 14,000 arsenic of the extremity of June. Microsoft, Meta, Apple and Google had implicit 4,000 specified visas each, coming successful among the apical 10 recipients of H-1B permits for the fiscal twelvemonth 2025.

In an interview with CBS's "Face the Nation" program, IBM Vice Chairman Gary Cohn, who served arsenic National Economic Council manager during Trump's archetypal term, said that the panic had dissipated implicit the weekend. He praised the determination for ensuring higher-skilled talents successful the U.S. and yet bully for the economy.

"It caused a panic implicit the play due to the fact that radical weren't definite what was going connected with the existing H-1B visas. It's been cleaned up implicit the play truthful astatine this constituent there's not a panic successful the system," helium said.

"Ultimately we're going to bring precocious skilled radical successful the United States. It's going to assistance turn our economy, and that's bully for each of us."

— CNBC's Yun Li contributed to this report.