When 26-year-old Indian biotechnology graduate Joshi moved to the United States for a master’s degree at Northwestern University, she expected to build a long-term career there.
After completing her studies, she secured a $75,000-a-year position in 2024 as a scientist at a lab-grown meat startup. She settled into life in an affordable suburban apartment, spent weekends travelling with friends and began building a future in the US.
But her plans changed when her employer informed her that it could not sponsor her for an H-1B visa.
Her Optional Practical Training, a work authorisation available to foreign students after graduation, was due to expire in July 2025, leaving her with limited options to remain in the country.
Joshi could either accept a job in Germany and leave behind her partner and the life she had established in the US or try to secure another employer willing to sponsor her.
She eventually accepted the German opportunity and relocated in January.
“Having gone through so much turbulence, I really needed the stability to calm down,” Joshi, 26, told Business Insider.
Her experience is part of a wider challenge confronting international graduates and foreign professionals seeking to establish careers in the US as immigration policies become increasingly uncertain.
For decades, the US has attracted highly skilled workers from around the world, with the H-1B programme serving as one of the main routes for foreign professionals seeking employment in the country.
The visa was established under the Immigration Act of 1990. According to an analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy, about 700,000 people currently live and work in the US on H-1B visas.
However, obtaining the visa has remained difficult because demand consistently exceeds the available quota. The US makes 85,000 new H-1B visas available each year, while US Citizenship and Immigration Services received nearly 344,000 eligible registrations for fiscal year 2026.
The uncertainty surrounding the programme has increased since the Trump administration began introducing tougher measures affecting H-1B visas about a year ago.
Joshi is among more than 20 international graduates and foreign workers interviewed by Business Insider over the past year about the difficulties and choices involved in pursuing careers in the US.
The interviews form part of a weekly series titled “H-1B Fallout: 1 Year Later”, which examines how foreign workers are responding to changes in the US immigration system.
The administration has said its policies are designed to prevent abuse of the H-1B programme and protect American workers from being displaced by lower-paid foreign labour.
A Year Of Immigration Uncertainty
Sonu, a software engineer at a Silicon Valley technology company, obtained his H-1B visa in 2019 and was caught up in the uncertainty surrounding the programme last September.
The Indian national had planned a five-week trip to Asia with his wife after saving a month of parental leave. They intended to spend time in Bali and Singapore before travelling to New Delhi, where Sonu hoped to introduce his first daughter to his parents.
But on September 20, 2025, hours before the family was due to fly to New Delhi, Sonu received an early-morning call from a friend in the US.
He was told that President Donald Trump had signed an executive order requiring companies to pay a $100,000 fee for each H-1B application.
The measure was due to take effect the following day and initially raised concerns that existing H-1B workers could be prevented from returning to the US unless their employers paid the fee.
Sonu, who requested that Business Insider identify him only by his first name, said he initially found the development difficult to believe.
“But I was with my family, and I couldn’t risk it,” he said.
He subsequently spent more than $7,000 on tickets for the earliest available flight back to San Francisco.
By the time the family arrived about 24 hours later, the White House had clarified that the measure would apply only to new H-1B applicants.
The announcement had nevertheless created anxiety among H-1B workers and employers. Companies including Amazon, Microsoft, JPMorgan and Meta issued urgent travel guidance to employees holding the visas, with some workers questioning whether they could travel freely or accept employment in the US.
Nine months later, in June, a federal judge struck down the fee. In August, however, the administration introduced another proposal that would impose a $103,265 charge on most new H-1B petitions.
“There is no shortage of American minds and hands to grow our labor force,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis told Business Insider earlier this month.
Bis said the proposed fee was intended to discourage companies from “spamming the system” and ensure employers seeking overseas workers had a genuine need for highly skilled talent.
The frequent changes have continued to create uncertainty for visa holders, prospective applicants and companies.
As of the publication of the report, courts had blocked the proposed $100,000 fee, while its implementation would require congressional authorisation.
Jeanne Batalova, a senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, said the current movement of foreign talent away from the US was unlike anything she had observed during more than two decades studying immigration.
The Trump administration, she said, “really, really used the administrative power to restrict the pathways for international students and H-1B workers.”
Some H-1B holders working for major technology companies told Business Insider that concerns about possible layoffs had contributed to their decisions to leave the industry.
At the employer level, certified H-1B applications during the first nine months of the fiscal year were down 10 per cent compared with the same period a year earlier, according to Business Insider’s analysis of federal data.
Nina Thekdi, an immigration lawyer at Michigan-based Varnum LLP, said uncertainty surrounding the proposed H-1B fee and increased scrutiny of applications could be discouraging companies from sponsoring new workers.
“There may also be some pullback on renewals tied to layoffs,” she said.
Skilled Workers Look Beyond America
There are also signs that more highly educated foreign workers are considering building their careers outside the US.
An August report by the American Institute of Physics found that the proportion of non-American physics PhD graduates who left the US after completing their degrees increased from 16 per cent in the 2023-24 academic year to 29 per cent in 2024-25.
Batalova said foreign workers were actively exploring alternatives rather than simply waiting for the US immigration system to change.
Workers are “not sitting and waiting,” she said, but are “proactively exploring opportunities and going to other places.”
Sunjana Ramana, a 27-year-old Indian national with a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Columbia University, is one of those who moved elsewhere.
After failing to obtain an H-1B visa three times, she relocated to the UK in February.
She secured the UK’s high-potential visa, which allows graduates of certain leading universities to work without being tied to a specific employer.
Ramana used the opportunity to explore entrepreneurship, launching an AI company while taking part in a startup-building programme operated by venture capital firm Antler.
“I want to go back and tell my younger self not to associate the ‘dream’ with America, because it doesn’t matter where you are,” she said in May. “The dream should be aligned with you and your goals.”
Later that month, she secured a product-management position at London-based financial technology company Wise.
Chris Eldridge, North America CEO of recruitment firm Robert Walters, said countries including Germany, the UK, the UAE and Canada were making efforts to attract highly skilled workers from the US.
He said those countries were offering easier immigration pathways, faster routes to permanent residency and more predictable visa systems.
Some Workers Return Home
India and China are among the countries benefiting from the movement of skilled professionals away from the US, according to David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute.
Workers born in India and China represent the largest portions of H-1B programme participants. USCIS data showed that India-born workers accounted for about 70 per cent of approved H-1B beneficiaries in fiscal year 2025, followed by China-born workers at 12 per cent.
“Many of the people who are leaving are from India and China,” Bier said. “That’s the most likely destination for them to go back, to their home countries.”
Vivienne Yang, a Taiwanese professional who previously worked for an adtech company in New York, returned to Taiwan after losing her job.
She was on holiday in Japan in 2024 when she learnt that she had been laid off and spent much of the trip consulting immigration and employment lawyers.
Yang returned to New York and changed her status from H-1B to a tourist visa to give herself additional time to search for employment.
After more than 20 unsuccessful job interviews and a rejected student visa application, she returned to Taiwan towards the end of last year.
Although the move represented a significant adjustment, Yang said one major benefit was no longer having to organise her life around immigration requirements.
“It’s so weird not having to worry about a visa,” she said. “Now I can get any random gig without worrying: ‘Oh, if I want to do this, what kind of visa do I need to get?’”
Her return home has also come with sacrifices. She now lives with her parents, sister and grandmother and said she has had to follow household rules she had outgrown.
She sleeps on a portable bed in a storage room without air conditioning and said she sometimes feels that her life has been downgraded.
Despite the uncertainty, demand for H-1B visas remains strong. USCIS announced on July 17 that it had received enough petitions to reach the 85,000 visa cap for fiscal year 2027.
“The US remains one of the most attractive markets for top-tier professionals,” Eldridge said.
Concerns Over America’s Talent Pipeline
The uncertainty surrounding H-1B sponsorship could have broader consequences for American companies seeking highly skilled workers.
Foreign-born workers represented 22 per cent of the US STEM workforce in 2024, according to the National Science Foundation.
Among highly educated science and engineering professionals, the proportion was even higher. In 2023, foreign-born workers accounted for 39 per cent of those with master’s degrees and 46 per cent of those with doctorates.
Batalova said immigrants had contributed significantly to innovation and entrepreneurship in the US, but warned that the traditional routes connecting international graduates with American universities, research institutions and companies were becoming narrower.
She described the trend as the “dismantling of the international talent pipeline.”
David Brown, Americas CEO of recruitment company Hays, said industries such as artificial intelligence, advanced technology and engineering could be particularly affected.
He said those fields depend on a relatively small pool of highly specialised professionals.
“The bigger risk for US employers is not a mass departure,” Brown said. “It is losing a relatively small number of highly valuable people in the skill areas where supply is already extremely tight.”
Bier said restoring confidence among international workers could take time, even if immigration policies change under a future administration.
“It’s not a light switch,” he said. “You’ve got to give people some clear evidence that you’re committed to a more open and welcoming policy.”
For Joshi, leaving the US has changed how she views her future.
While living there, she had expected to obtain an H-1B visa, eventually apply for permanent residency and settle in the country.
Her decision to move to Germany has instead made her more willing to consider other career paths.
However, despite leaving, she still hopes to return to the US.
“I regret moving to the US because I’ve seen what that country offers, and nothing else will be enough,” she said.
