Return to US immediately or risk getting stranded: immigration attorneys,companies tell H-1B workers
New York/Washington (PTI): Immigration attorneys and companies are cautioning H-1B visa holders against travelling outside the US amid President Donald Trump’s new plan to impose a USD 100,000 fee on the work visas, with many asking employees to return immediately to America or risk getting stranded.
In a significant development that will have an impact on Indian professionals working on H-1B visas in the US, Trump signed a proclamation Friday that restricts the entry into the United States of nonimmigrants working in a “speciality occupation” unless their H-1B petitions are accompanied or supplemented by a payment of USD 100,000. This proclamation will come into effect from 12:01 am September 21, 2025.
Immigration attorneys and companies are sounding the alarm for H-1B visa holders or their family members currently outside the US for work or vacation, asking them to return to the US before the proclamation kicks in on September 21, essentially telling those outside the country to return within the next 24 hours or risk being stranded and denied entry into the US.
“H-1B visa holders who are out of the US on business or vacation will get stranded unless they get in before midnight September 21. H-1Bs still in India may have already missed the deadline as there is no way a direct flight from India will get in time,” eminent New York-based immigration attorney Cyrus Mehta said in a post on X.
“There may still be a way for an H-1B visa holder who is in India to arrive in California before midnight September 21, 2025,” Mehta said.
Users on social media posted excerpts of an internal email by Microsoft that asked its employees on H1B visas and their dependents to avoid travelling outside the US and return immediately before the September 21 deadline. The tech giant is understood to have told its employees to remain in the US for the “foreseeable future" to "avoid being denied reentry”.
Dependents of H-1B visa holders, who can stay in the US on H-4 visas, are also being asked to stay put in the country, even though the proclamation does not mention anything about H-1B dependents.
Companies are asking their employees, who are abroad, to return to the US before the September 21 deadline.
Cato Institute Director of Immigration Studies David Bier said in a post on X that Indian H-1B workers have "contributed an unfathomable amount" to America, including hundreds of billions in taxes, tens of billions more in fees, trillions in services. “Among the most peaceful, intelligent, interesting people to grace our shores. And what do we give back? Demonisation & discrimination…”
“We have a set of laws mandating discriminatory treatment at every stage of the legal immigration process, particularly for Indians. They've been barred from adjusting to permanent residence for decades based on nothing more than their birthplace,” Bier said.
“The result is that these people are subject to a unique set of discriminatory policies that mandate their employers to advertise their jobs to others, require them to pay expensive fees and lawyers, prohibit easily changing job sites or job duties. It is unimaginable” he said adding that the kids of Indian workers “who came here with them as elementary school students are Americans in ever single way you can imagine, but the law tells them to leave when they reach adulthood or literally win the lottery to get to stay.... and be as discriminated against as your parents.”
“Now Trump comes along and signs an executive order that officially villainises this population, as job thieves, prosperity burglars, legal system cheats, security threats. Possibly the most law-abiding, hard-working, peaceful, productive population in all of US history!” Bier added in the X post.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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