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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 the deadline, 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.
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 5.05pm 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, the engineer said.
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 an 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 US – 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 US before a travel ban took effect.
Companies including Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Goldman Sachs were among those that sent urgent emails to their employees with travel advisories.
As of Sunday, some of the panic had dissipated, said IBM vice chairman Gary Cohn on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’ programme, as more details came out.
“I think it caused a panic over the weekend because people weren’t sure what was going on with the existing H-1B visas,” Cohn said. “It’s been cleaned up over the weekend, so at this point, there’s not a panic in the system.”
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