The United States has long been a global leader in science, technology and education. American tech companies continue to drive global growth and innovation, and American universities, including Notre Dame, are consistently ranked among the world’s best. In achieving this success, both technology companies such as Google, Apple and Open AI and universities have relied on H-1B visas to recruit foreign talent.
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant U.S. work visa that allows U.S. employers to hire foreign professionals to work in specialty occupations, jobs that typically require at least a bachelor’s degree or equivalent higher education. Those who plan to obtain an H-1B visa cannot apply on their own; a U.S. employer must agree to sponsor the individual and file a petition with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on their behalf.
Obtaining these visas became more difficult when, on Sept. 19, President Donald Trump signed the “Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers” proclamation.
According to the USCIS, the proclamation aims to reform the H-1B visa program to “curb abuses and protect American workers.”
The proclamation introduces new restrictions and requirements such as a $100,000 payment to accompany any new H-1B visa petitions submitted after Sept. 21, 2025. This is a dramatic increase from the previous $2,000 to $5,000 fee, raising the financial burden on companies hiring foreign workers.
The H-1B visa has a congressionally mandated annual cap at 65,000 and an additional 20,000 for advanced degree exemptions, known as the master’s cap. Because demand consistently exceeds these limits, petitions are selected through a lottery system.
The American Immigration Council believes this new “restrictive criteria likely will discourage many U.S. employers petitioners from applying.”
The USCIS maintains that additional reforms are also under consideration and will be announced in the coming months.
Trump’s main argument in introducing these restrictions, as noted in the proclamation, is that H-1B visas take away high-paying jobs from qualified American candidates, specifically technology jobs in Silicon Valley.
“I do think that the H-1B visa [restrictions] are targeted at Silicon Valley, but they have serious implications for universities,” political science professor Sebastian Rosato said.
Rosato clarified that these regulations are yet to be enforced, as no action has been taken on the visas following the proclamation.
“[The Trump administration] has announced it. I don’t know if it’s happening, the details are unclear. I don’t know if academic universities are going to get an exemption. Will these policies be reversed when the Trump administration steps down? I don’t know. But if it goes through as described, the results are going to be catastrophic,” Rosato said.
When asked about H-1B visas, university spokesperson Erin Blasko wrote, “absent clear federal guidelines on the new policy, we have nothing to share at this point.”
Economics professor César Sosa-Padilla was critical of Trump’s argument. In a statement to The Observer, Sosa-Padilla wrote, Trump’s “view is that restricting the ability to attract top talent from overseas is and will be detrimental to the US’s leadership in science and technology. As long as H1B visas are used for this talent acquisition (which they are), then this doesn’t seem to be the best idea.”
Rosato echoed that criticism, saying that the restrictions have “portrayed foreigners as taking advantage of the United States and denying Americans opportunities. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.” Instead, Rosato believes highly-skilled foreign workers have “made America great.”
The restrictions abandon the idea behind the “U.S. visa scheme, which was designed to attract the best talent,” Rosato said. “Now you’re going to shut out the best talent.”
As an elite university that employs many foreign professors and doctoral candidates, both professors noted that Notre Dame will feel the weight of these restrictions if they are implemented.
Rosato, originally from Europe, started his work at Notre Dame on an H-1B visa (He now has a green card.). He recalled his own hiring process and the hiring process of most faculty jobs, which involve “a hiring committee and the department that votes, and the dean gets to say something, and the provost gets to make a decision.”
This process ensures that candidates are selected based on their talent and not their nationality.
“So all of those people thought, in my case, and I know a lot of other foreign students who came [through] hiring committees, and they believed that the best person for the job was not an American, right? It’s not like they didn’t have American candidates. They had tons of American candidates, but they thought we were the best,” Rosato said.
According to Rosato, these restrictions pose “a huge problem for American higher education,” as universities may not always choose the most qualified candidate.
“You have to ask yourself, who do we want in these jobs? Do we want the smartest people in these jobs? Do you want open competition for these jobs? Or do you just want competition amongst Americans? If you want to have competition among Americans, is that going to yield the smartest or most productive faculty members?” Rosato said.
Typically, Notre Dame would cover the small fee and sponsor faculty members applying for H-1B visas.
“I don’t think a university would likely spend $100,000 to hire a junior faculty member,” Rosato said.
Sosa-Padilla believes Notre Dame should shoulder the costs of the visa because it would pay off for the University, as universities with smaller endowments may not be able to afford the higher costs.
Although Rosato believes that while possible, given Trump’s hostility toward elite universities in the past, Trump will not grant an exception for universities.
“It’s interesting that [Trump] seems to be coming at universities from all different directions. There’s the DEI stuff, the H-1B visa, anti semitism on campuses, the endowment tax … I don’t think he has any fondness for universities,” Rosato said.
From a global perspective, restrictions on international hiring in tech and education threaten America’s power status.
“The United States is the greatest country in the world right now because, in so many respects, it has the greatest university system in the world. If you look at how power has evolved over time, back in the 19th century, Britain was the most powerful state in the world, and Britain had the best universities …. what people are worried about is that China could be next. Every time you look at the rankings for universities, you see more and more Chinese universities. That tells you one thing. It tells you that China is getting smarter,” Rosato said.
The restrictions also pose a threat to innovation worldwide, as American tech companies and universities are often at the forefront of developing global solutions to medical, environmental and technological problems.
“As I said earlier, if these policies stick, we’ll be putting at risk America’s role — and our universities’ role — as the world’s main engine of science and technology. Where does growth really come from? From innovation, from better technology, from new ideas — all things that take time to develop. Keep this up for long enough, and twenty years from now we might look back and say, ‘Wow, that was an obvious mistake,’” Sosa-Padilla wrote.
