Trump’s Change on H-1B Visas Is Causing Chaos, RI Has About 1,500 - See Companies With the Most
GoLocalProv News Team
Trump’s Change on H-1B Visas Is Causing Chaos, RI Has About 1,500 - See Companies With the Most
The executive order goes into effect on Sunday. The impact of the last-minute EO has sent businesses spiraling. A key element of the EO is that each H-1B visa applicant will have to pay a $100,000 application fee.
Approximately 100 Rhode Island companies employ workers with H-1B visas. There are 1,552 visa holders in the state according to U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services’ database.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“The Trump administration’s moves to upend the immigration system set off a wave of anxiety and confusion this weekend as workers and employers raced to respond ahead of a key deadline Sunday,” reported the Wall Street Journal.
Less than 24 hours later, a White House official said that the fee would only apply to new applicants, not current H-1B visa holders.
The implications are significant for the Rhode Island workers on the H-1B visas and the vast majority of those workers are tied to one of Rhode Island’s largest employers — CVS.
Companies Sent Scrambling
“The announcement on Friday that the Trump administration planned to add a new $100,000 annual fee for H-1B visa applications beginning at 12:01 a.m. ET Sunday caught companies and employees off guard, spurring a furious scramble,” reports WSJ.
“Amazon, Alphabet’s Google, Microsoft and others warned H-1B holders not to leave the country and urged employees overseas on the visa to get back to the U.S. on Saturday because it could be difficult to re-enter, according to notes sent to staff reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and people familiar with their contents. Companies worried they could be on the hook for enormous fee payments given how many of their employees use such visas,” added WSJ.
Rhode Island — About 100 Companies Impacted, But None More Than CVS
The companies in Rhode Island that have H-1B workers range from the very largest down to some Rhode Island employees who have just one, including food delivery company Feast and Fettle, the City of Central Falls, and Blount Fine Foods.
In contrast, Massachusetts has more than 200 employers with 12,000 H-1B visa holders.
The Top Ten Rhode Island Companies Are
SEE THE DATA SEARCH TOOL AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ARTICLE
But of the total of more than 1,550 in Rhode Island, CVS and its related companies hold 976 H-1B visas. Here is the breakdown of the CVS companies:
Caremark 274
Aetna 236
CVS Pharmacy 234
CVS shared Resources 200
ProCare pharmacy 16
Signify Health 7
Oak Street Health 6
Well Partners 3
Trump’s EO Claims American Workers Are Being Displaced
According to the EO, “The number of foreign STEM workers in the United States has more than doubled between 2000 and 2019, increasing from 1.2 million to almost 2.5 million, while overall STEM employment has only increased 44.5 percent during that time. Among computer and math occupations, the foreign share of the workforce grew from 17.7 percent in 2000 to 26.1 percent in 2019. And the key facilitator for this influx of foreign STEM labor has been the abuse of the H-1B visa.”
Further, the EO claims, “Reports also indicate that many American tech companies have laid off their qualified and highly skilled American workers and simultaneously hired thousands of H-1B workers. One software company was approved for over 5,000 H-1B workers in FY 2025; around the same time, it announced a series of layoffs totaling more than 15,000 employees. Another IT firm was approved for nearly 1,700 H-1B workers in FY 2025; it announced it was laying off 2,400 American workers in Oregon in July. A third company has reduced its workforce by approximately 27,000 American workers since 2022, while being approved for over 25,000 H-1B workers since FY 2022. A fourth company reportedly eliminated 1,000 jobs in February; it was approved for over 1,100 H-1B workers for FY 2025.”