"Minutes after President Donald Trump signed his H-1B visa executive order Friday evening, panic rippled through the cabin of an India-bound Emirates flight about to take off from San Francisco. As passengers' phones lit up with calls and emails about the order, dozens of H-1B visa holders started walking off the plane one by one. Each exit sent ground crew scrambling to dig through the hold for luggage. In the cabin, tempers frayed. People whispered anxiously."
"From her window seat, Zarna Joshi, a US citizen and healthcare worker, watched as cart after cart of bags was hauled back away from the aircraft. It was a nightmare, Joshi told Business Insider. "We'd already been onboard for two hours, and there were no updates - just more people leaving." By Joshi's count, at least 40 passengers walked off the plane."
Minutes after President Trump's H-1B executive order, dozens of visa holders began leaving an India-bound Emirates flight from San Francisco, creating panic and luggage retrieval chaos. Passengers' phones received calls and emails about the order, prompting at least 40 people to disembark, and some reversing long-awaited travel plans after employer immigration teams advised them. A Microsoft employee boarded then left after receiving an internal email. The order imposes a $100,000 fee on companies hiring H-1B employees. The tech industry has relied on H-1B visas for specialized engineering and research roles for decades. Major tech companies' HR and immigration teams sent urgent guidance to affected employees.
Read at Business Insider
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