(UNITED STATES) Representative Jimmy Panetta has urged the Biden administration to reconsider recent changes to the H-1B visa policy, warning that the September restrictions and a new $100,000 fee per petition could weaken U.S.-India relations and make it harder for American employers to hire highly skilled workers from abroad. In a public statement and a formal letter to President Biden, Panetta said the policy shift risks undermining sectors that depend on global talent, especially technology and innovation.
“The H-1B visa program is an important part of why the United States continues to lead in technological innovation,” said Jimmy Panetta, who is pressing for a reassessment of the new measures.
Panetta and other lawmakers asked the administration to revisit a presidential proclamation issued on September 19, 2025, that imposed new limits on H-1B petitions and took effect at 12:01 a.m. EDT on September 21, 2025. The proclamation restricts new H-1B petitions for beneficiaries outside the United States who do not hold a valid H-1B visa and applies to consular notification, port of entry notification, and certain change of status requests. It also introduced a one-time $100,000 fee for each new H-1B petition filed after the effective date, a change that has drawn bipartisan concern for its potential to price out smaller employers and startups and to reduce access to skilled foreign professionals, particularly from India.
The letter argues that Indian nationals make up the majority of H-1B recipients and that the program is “critical for maintaining the U.S.-India partnership and for U.S. national security.” In pressing for a policy reset, Panetta and his colleagues said the new restrictions and high fees could “undermine the United States’ ability to attract and retain global talent,” citing the outsized role Indian professionals play in sectors central to U.S. economic competitiveness. They warned the shift could “jeopardize economic competitiveness and technological advancement,” and urged the White House to back policies that “strengthen, not weaken, ties with India.”
The timing of the proclamation has amplified concern among immigrant workers, universities, and employers already adjusting to other federal changes this year. On July 25, 2025, the State Department said it would eliminate interview waivers for most nonimmigrant visa applicants, including H-1B professionals, starting September 2, 2025. That move has increased demand for in-person appointments at U.S. consulates, including in India, where wait times were already a challenge. Congressional representatives, including Panetta, have cautioned that the resulting delays could disrupt fall semester enrollment for Indian students and add new hurdles for workers and families navigating travel and start dates connected to employment and study.
Supporters of the call to reconsider the H-1B visa policy say the proclamation’s reach goes beyond a higher filing cost. Because it restricts new H-1B petitions for many would-be hires outside the United States and touches consular processing and certain change-of-status scenarios, employers face more uncertainty in planning for staffing needs, relocations, and project timelines. The fee itself is being closely watched by companies that rely on mid-year hiring or that anticipated recruiting talent from India this fall, with many warning that a $100,000 charge per petition could be cost-prohibitive for startups, small tech firms, and research collaborations.
Panetta’s intervention comes after the Department of Homeland Security moved earlier in the year to modernize parts of the H-1B system. On January 17, 2025, DHS implemented a final rule aimed at improving the lottery and registration process to prevent fraud and provide a fairer path for smaller employers and startups. While those reforms were welcomed by many across the business and academic communities, Panetta and other lawmakers say the September proclamation, with its higher costs and narrower eligibility for new petitions, has overshadowed those gains and could blunt the intended benefits for U.S. employers who depend on specialized skills.
U.S.-India relations are central to the lawmakers’ critique of the new approach. The letter emphasizes that Indian nationals comprise the majority of H-1B recipients, which makes the policy shift especially sensitive for both countries. As the United States and India deepen ties on defense, technology cooperation, and economic development, Panetta’s office argues that restricting the pipeline of Indian professionals could inject strain into a partnership Washington has described as strategic. The lawmakers’ message is that talent flows and technology cooperation are intertwined with diplomacy, and that curbing one risks weakening the other.
Employers in software, semiconductor design, data science, and biotech have told lawmakers that the H-1B framework helps them fill critical roles when they cannot find specialized skills domestically. Panetta’s statement builds on those concerns by pointing out that uncertainty in visa processing—combined with new fees and consular backlogs—can force companies to delay projects, shift work overseas, or cancel recruitment plans. Lawmakers highlight that many firms recruit graduates from U.S. universities who hold temporary visas and later transition to the H-1B, and that tightening pathways after graduation disrupts hiring and long-term planning that U.S. employers have relied on for years.
The proclamation’s restrictions specifically capture scenarios important for businesses and workers who planned to start jobs after the fall with consular notification, or who intended to enter the United States at a port of entry with new approvals, as well as certain change of status requests inside the country. Immigration attorneys and company HR teams have flagged the overlap with the State Department’s end to interview waivers as a compounding problem, since the loss of waivers pushes more applicants into in-person interview queues just as policy limits and costs rise. Panetta’s office says congressional inquiries reflect a clear pattern: more employers pausing overseas recruitment and more prospective hires stuck in scheduling bottlenecks.
Panetta’s statement also underscores national security arguments in favor of a stable and accessible H-1B pipeline. The letter calls the program “critical for maintaining the U.S.-India partnership and for U.S. national security,” tying a steady flow of skilled professionals to broader collaboration in technology fields that the United States considers strategically important. The lawmakers’ position is that a reliable H-1B system contributes to research, defense-related technology, and supply-chain resilience because it helps staff projects that the government and industry deem essential. By this logic, higher barriers to talent run counter to stated U.S. goals in advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity.
For Indian families, the human impact extends beyond hiring decisions. The removal of interview waivers on September 2, 2025 means more applicants—workers and their dependents—must travel to consulates and wait for in-person interviews, often at short notice and at greater cost. Congressional offices have warned that longer queues and shifting appointment availability can upend start dates and enrollment deadlines, with lawmakers noting that fall semester plans for Indian students can be derailed by a single delayed slot. Panetta’s argument is that these practical delays, set alongside the $100,000 fee and new petition limits, represent a cumulative roadblock for communities that have historically helped drive U.S. innovation.
The focus on H-1B visa policy has also stirred reaction among business groups and university administrators who have spent months adjusting to DHS’s changes from January 17, 2025. Those updates were designed to curb fraud in the H-1B registration process and to make selection fairer for smaller employers and startups, addressing long-standing complaints that larger firms dominated the lottery. But Panetta and his colleagues contend that a sudden increase in costs and narrower eligibility arriving in September 2025 reverses that progress in practice, because it disproportionately burdens the very employers the DHS rule aimed to help.
Panetta’s office frames the September proclamation as a policy shift that conflicts with broader goals to strengthen U.S.-India relations, insisting that the administration should emphasize measures that foster access to talent and predictability for employers. To that end, the lawmakers’ letter urges the White House to reassess both the scope of the new restrictions and the scale of the new fee, arguing that a more measured approach would still protect U.S. labor standards while supporting the recruitment of specialized professionals. The lawmakers warned that without adjustments, the policy would “undermine the United States’ ability to attract and retain global talent,” a risk they say is acute in fields where Indian professionals have long contributed.
The call to revisit the policy has resonated in districts with significant technology employers, where hiring managers face end-of-year deadlines and product roadmaps that depend on filling specialized roles. While larger companies may absorb a $100,000 surcharge, smaller firms and startups often cannot, which is why Panetta points to the DHS modernization as a template for how to balance fairness and enforcement without closing the door on talent. In that spirit, his office says the H-1B pathway should remain accessible to a range of employers so that U.S. innovation is not concentrated in a few firms able to pay steep new costs.
In practical terms, the clash over the H-1B visa policy is about timing and trade-offs. The sequence of a January modernization, a July announcement ending interview waivers, and a September 19, 2025 proclamation effective September 21, 2025 has left employers and applicants to manage overlapping changes at once. For companies in fast-moving sectors, delays in onboarding can cause missed contracts and postponed launches. For workers, missing a consular slot or facing new eligibility limits can mean losing a job offer or deferring a move by months. Panetta’s office says these are the real-world outcomes that stirred the bipartisan concern now aimed at the White House.
The administration has not detailed potential revisions to the proclamation, and Panetta’s letter does not propose a specific alternative fee or threshold. Instead, it frames the request as a reconsideration grounded in the United States’ interest in economic leadership and in nurturing a strategic partnership with India. The message is that access to talent is part of foreign policy and national security, and that the United States should align visa policy with those priorities to avoid self-inflicted setbacks.
“The H-1B visa program is an important part of why the United States continues to lead in technological innovation,” Panetta said, using the point to anchor a wider argument that the country benefits when its immigration system supports rather than deters highly skilled workers.
Employers and prospective applicants looking to understand the current rules have continued to rely on official resources as they plan filings and travel. The USCIS H-1B program page lists general requirements and procedures, but Panetta’s office stresses that the September proclamation and the State Department’s policy shift on interviews have reshaped the practical landscape for many. That is why, they say, the appeal to the administration focuses on aligning near-term policy with long-term goals that tie immigration, economic competitiveness, and U.S.-India relations together.
For now, Panetta’s push keeps the H-1B debate squarely on the administration’s desk as employers weigh whether to proceed with overseas recruitment this quarter and Indian professionals reconsider plans to start new roles in the United States. The request is as much about predictability as it is about cost: lawmakers want the White House to pause and recalibrate, with an eye to keeping the United States open to the talent it has long attracted. Their argument returns to the same central point—without a course correction, the combined effect of new restrictions, higher fees, and longer waits will “jeopardize economic competitiveness and technological advancement,” and risk cooling a partnership that Washington and New Delhi both describe as vital.
This Article in a Nutshell
Rep. Jimmy Panetta urged the White House to reconsider a September 2025 proclamation that restricts new H-1B petitions and levies a one-time $100,000 fee per petition. Lawmakers warn this policy, combined with the State Department’s removal of most interview waivers on September 2, 2025, and earlier January DHS reforms, could strain U.S.-India relations, impede hiring of Indian professionals critical to technology sectors, and disproportionately burden startups and smaller employers. Panetta calls for recalibration to preserve competitiveness and predictable access to global talent.
