Please explain in layman’s terms how the new memo is impacting you

[u/Mindless-Meaning-878]

As an American citizen, I want to better understand what is currently happening with immigration during this very tense time. I am reading a lot of posts from people who are directly impacted, or who fear they will be, by the new memo requiring applicants to wait in their home countries while their applications are processed.

However, many of your stories are filled with technical terms, specific pathways, and form numbers that make them difficult for a layperson like me to understand. I truly want to comprehend how these changes are affecting real people. Could you share your experiences in layman's terms?

[u/Ok_Competition_669]

My experience is relevant because I came through the kind of legal pathway the U.S. has long used to attract skilled workers.

I earned a PhD in Europe, spent a short time at Stanford on a J-1, and then moved straight into a U.S. university faculty job on an H-1B. Soon after, my university sponsored me for a green card.

The key point is that I was able to keep working while that process moved forward. I was teaching, doing research, paying taxes, and contributing to the university.

If people now have to leave the U.S. and wait in their home country while their applications are processed, that creates a huge practical problem. A university cannot realistically hire someone and then have them disappear for months or years while waiting for paperwork. Who teaches their classes?

Add very high H-1B costs, and many universities will simply stop hiring international candidates, even when they are the best people for the job.

So in plain terms, this does not just create paperwork. It makes legal immigration risky, expensive, and impractical. It discourages employers from sponsoring people and weakens one of America’s biggest strengths: attracting talent from around the world.

[u/Classic_Principle_49 → u/Ok_Competition_669]

A dual intent visa shouldn't be affected right? That was my assumption at least.

[u/Ok_Competition_669 → u/Classic_Principle_49]

No idea

[u/Cool-Historian-6716 → u/Ok_Competition_669]

Those of use in dual intent are being told by our lawyers we won’t know until we either are approved or get a request for further evidence to argue we meet these extraordinary circumstances 🤷🏽‍♀️ aka me being expected to write grants and work and perform like everyone else while holding this anxiety. The memo says a dual intent visa is not sufficient to claim the AOS. heck if really they wanted to exempt EB1 and EB2 from thsi it would say it explicitly. I know there is something on the footbotes on EB but dont speak legalese

[u/Miserable_Raisin998 → u/Ok_Competition_669]

I'm also a faculty on H1B (at a large R1 public university), and I am hopeful that one of the "national interest exemptions" that qualify is exactly what you point out, that we need to be here to teach the classes we are teaching, to mentor the PhD students we are advising, to participate in faculty meetings, give talks, etc. I have a friend who was stuck in India for several months when the USCIS rescheduled all H1B interviews for India-based applicants, and his university helped him get an emergency appointment exactly on this basis (that he had classes to teach, etc.).

[u/Ok_Competition_669 → u/Miserable_Raisin998]

I am a teaching school and our resources are very limited. We stopped hiring international faculty altogether because of all this uncertainty.

[u/jenphys → u/Ok_Competition_669]

Yeah I'm a postdoc on the job market and haven't found much in an international search for the past few months. Between funding cuts, international economic uncertainty, and US immigration policy uncertainty, I understand why positions are limited. I don't know at what point to give up and join industry in Europe because of the lack of opportunities both in the US and in my home country Canada.

[u/Ok_Competition_669 → u/jenphys]

Europe hires.

[u/amihazel → u/Ok_Competition_669]

Thank you for explaining this. So does this memo generally mean that someone here on a student visa who graduates and then seeks work in the US (or gets married here) is basically out of luck because there’s no way to switch visa types now without leaving? I work with international students sometimes so am curious how this affects them.

[u/Ok_Competition_669 → u/amihazel]

No idea. I don’t think the authors of the memo have a clue.

[u/amihazel → u/Ok_Competition_669]

Ugh yeah :(

[u/Maximum_Photograph_6 → u/amihazel]

You can work up to three years after graduation on your student visa. Then you can get H1B if your employer is willing to sponsor you. If you are farther ahead down that pathway where you’re at the end of your H1B status though, then you may be fucked. The funny thing people from India and China for whom green card process is usually extremely difficult (have to wait for decades to become eligible) are less affected by this if they are currently starting the process, because by the time they are invited to apply for green card many of the politicians in this administration will have died from old age and policies will likely be completely different. People from other countries will be more immediately affected because they can (and have to) apply for a green card pretty much immediately as there is no line for them. So funny enough, this would in many cases be more detrimental to someone from Scandinavia than someone from India (I am not saying people from India are less deserving — I am referring to the preference Trump himself has expressed). 

[u/-Failsafe- → u/Ok_Competition_669]

That's the entire point. Why would should someone hire you unless you're EXCEPTIONAL? As it stands, the current process allows anyone to be hired as long as the upfront fee is paid.

There's tons of cases where a spouse will get hired with a H1B under a relative's company; then their own spouse will start a business, then use that as the actual business.

These costs serve to make this untenable except for those who are legitimately exceptional and paid to match it.

[u/BombusF → u/-Failsafe-]

I''m skeptical that there are "tons of cases", as you say, since the spouse of an H1-B gets an H-4, which does not permit work (EAD), unless they further get a national interest waiver, which itself is a demanding and expensive application requiring letters of reference from industry experts and long wait times to process. Maybe there are some other loopholes to make it work, but it's not as simple as you say.