Business leaders respond to H-1B reform, weekend turmoil

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(The Center Square) – Business leaders and corporations across the country that employ foreign workers through the H-1B visa program have scrambled to respond to President Donald Trump’s recent reform efforts.

On Friday, Trump announced the United States would charge companies $100,000 for each H-1B visa issued to a temporary foreign worker. The administration imposed a Sept. 21 deadline for charges to start on H-1B visa holders.

Companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Goldman Sachs reportedly issued memos over the weekend calling for employees to return to the United States and not leave the country.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified in a social media post on Saturday that the visa reform would not impact workers who already hold H-1B visas .

“H-1B visa holders can leave and re-enter the country to the same extent as they normally would; whatever ability they have to do that is not impacted by [the] proclamation,” Leavitt wrote.

H-1B visas are typically issued for high-skilled foreign workers in science, technology and engineering fields.

The H-1B program operates on a random lottery system. According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, in 2025, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Meta were in the top five companies petitioning for H-1B visas. Amazon recruited more than 10,000 H-1B applicants in 2025 alone, according to USCIS.

Microsoft has been criticized for recent layoffs of employees while still engaging in the H-1B program.

India is one of the top recipient countries for H-1B visas, according to data from Pew Research Center. Approximately 73% of H-1B visas approved in 2023 were from India, and China accounted for 12% of 2023 approvals.

The Trump administration’s move appears to be aimed at increasing positions for American workers at companies that use H-1B employees.

Gary Cohn, vice chairman at IBM, praised the new system in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday as an effort to recruit more Americans in companies across the country.

“You’re not just going to ask for a visa and put a name in the lottery, unless that is a highly skilled person who you need who you cannot hire in the United States,” Cohn said.

Michele Waslin, assistant director at the University of Minnesota’s immigration history research center, criticized the Trump administration’s rollout of charges.

“The fees will make H-1Bs exponentially difficult for employers to hire highly skilled foreign workers, and for some employers, it will be impossible,” Waslin said. “That could mean the difference between survival and closing the doors for some small businesses.”

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings also hailed the Trump administration’s change to the H-1B program as a “great solution” in a social media post on Sunday.

“It will mean H1-B is used just for very high value jobs, which will mean no lottery needed, and more certainty for those jobs,” Hastings wrote.

Esther Crawford, director of product management at Meta, criticized the apparent move to restrict H-1B visa holder applications in a post on social media.

“America’s edge has always been that we attract smart, ambitious people from everywhere.” Crawford said. High-skilled immigrants don’t take from us, they build with us. Some of the best colleagues in my career have been H-1B holders chasing their own American dream.”