Major companies such as Meta and Microsoft went into a huddle on Saturday morning and urged all their H-1B visa holders to not leave the US, at least for at least 14 days, after President Donald Trump launched a fresh crackdown on immigrants and imposed limitations on legal immigration.
According to internal mails accessed by NDTV Profit, the companies also urged their employees, who are currently residing outside the US, to return to the country within 24 hours to avoid denial of re-entry.
The emails asked the foreign employees to follow the directives for a “foreseeable future”.
Meta advised its H-1B visa and H4 status holders to stay in the US for at least two weeks, “till practical applications” are understood, and asked those currently residing outside to consider returning within 24 hours.
Microsoft, on the other hand, “strongly” asked its employees in the US to stay put to avoid denial of re-entry. It also asked the workers outside the country to “do best to return”.
The Newsweek report states that the biggest year-over-year gains via sponsorship were spread across different industries, with biggest rises being seen in consulting, finance, and tech firms.
Amazon continued to be the largest H-1B sponsor, with approvals increasing from 9,257 in 2024 to 10,044 in 2025, the publication noted. Other companies expanding foreign hiring include Meta, Apple, and Microsoft.
“It’s not surprising to see continued strong demand for H-1B visas, even among some businesses that have announced layoffs. Businesses that are laying off workers may be shifting their focus and still want to hire workers, but need a skill set that their existing workers don’t have and that they cannot readily find among US workers,” Newsweek reported Madeline Zavodny, a professor of economics at the University of North Florida say.
The publication noted that while raw data seems to show a large increase in H-1B approvals among top US employers in 2025, experts have cautioned that these numbers include extensions, transfers, cap-exempt petitions, all of which make it tough to infer a direct rise in new foreign hiring.