Big tech companies, including Apple, Google, Microsoft and ServiceNow, have warned employees with visas to avoid leaving the country amid uncertainty over changes to immigration policies and procedures.
After an attack on members of the National Guard in Washington, the Trump administration expanded travel bans earlier this month, and strengthened background investigations and data collection for visa applicants. The new policy now includes the detection of history of social networks of some visa applicants and their dependents.
Shortly after the announcement, American consulates began rescheduling appointments for future dates, some even as late as the summer of 2026, leaving employees who needed appointments unable to return.
“Please note that some US embassies and consulates are experiencing significant delays in visa stamping appointments, currently reported as up to 12 months,” notes an email sent by Berry Appleman & Leiden LLC, the immigration firm representing Google. The advisory also recommended “avoiding international travel at this time.”
Insider business information previously reported on the travel warnings.
The Microsoft memo noted that much of the rescheduling is happening in India, in cities like Chennai and Hyderabad, and that the new sealing dates are as far away as June 2026.
The company advised employees with valid work authorization who were traveling outside the U.S. to stamp to return before their current visa expires. Those who are still in the US and scheduling an upcoming trip to stamp their visa should “strongly consider” changing their travel plans.
Apple's immigration team also recommended that employees without a valid H1-B visa stamp avoid international travel for now.
ServiceNow, an enterprise software company, similarly issued an advisory recommending that those with valid visa stamps return to the US.
Microsoft declined to comment on its memo. Apple, Google and ServiceNow did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The companies warned that the delays due to the enhanced review are for H-1B, H-4, F, J and M visas.
H-1B is a highly skilled immigration visa program that allows employers to sponsor work visas for people with specialized skills. The program, capped at 85,000 new visas per year, is a channel for American tech giants to seek skilled workers, such as software engineers.
Big tech companies like Amazon, Google, and Meta have consistently topped the charts in terms of number of H-1B approvals, with Indian citizens being the biggest beneficiaries of the program, accounting for 71% of approved H-1B petitions.
H-1B visas are granted through a lottery system, which critics They say it has been exploited by companies to replace American workers with cheap foreign labor.
In September, the Trump administration announced a $100,000 hiring fee for new H-1B employees. But after strong pushback, he clarified that it applied only to employers seeking to use the H-1B visa to hire foreign nationals who were not already in the US.
The H-1B program is an issue that has not only animated the right but also divided it. Those on the tech right, like Elon Musk and David Sacks, are strongly in favor of strengthening skilled immigration, while the core MAGA base is vehemently opposed to it.
Proponents of the program often highlight that the immigration of skilled workers made the United States a technological leader, and almost half of Fortune 500 companies They were founded by immigrants or their children, creating jobs for native-born Americans.
