80% of companies have an immigrant in a top leadership role—Trump’s visa crackdown is forcing them to make a ‘plan C,’ warns immigration expert

In December 2025, Apple and Google had a clear message for employees on visas: Don’t leave the U.S., lest you risk not returning. That month, as part of a wider crackdown in immigration, the Trump administration added new criteria for foreign workers seeking visas, including requiring H-1B applicants and dependents to adjust their social media privacy settings to “public” for official review. The extra screenings prolonged the processing and approval of visa appointments, heaping uncertainty onto employees’ travel and work plans. Speaking at Fortune’s Workforce Innovation Summit on Wednesday, Hiba Mona Anver, partner at the Erickson Immigration Group, warned companies need to have a plan for employees vulnerable to hiccups in the visa approval process, lest those workers become stranded overseas. “The issue now is whether or not there is the possibility that this individual will run into some sort of interruption in their ability to remain in the United States and continue working for the company that is sponsoring them,” Anver told Fortune senior writer Phil Wahba. “There have been instances where changes in policy have resulted in employees getting stuck in India and separated from their families for months, many of which have still not been able to make their way back to the United States, and this happened barely six months ago.” Foreign-born workers make up nearly 20% of the U.S. civilian workforce, with about 1% of U.S. workers requiring temporary visas. These contributions in the labor market, as well as in consumer spending, generated about $1.7 trillion in economic activity in 2023. President Donald Trump has sought to reduce the number of foreign workers, claiming the U.S. would be unable to increase wages for American employees if it continued accepting immigrant workers. However, in some cases, the administration’s messaging around foreign labor has been muddied: Last year, Trump slapped a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications for highly skilled wor