By Thamanna Sadique
India-bound Emirates flight of Friday was in panic after the announcement of H-1B worker visa application fee of $1,00,000 by US President Donald Trump on Friday. In San Francisco International Airport, a group of Indian people reportedly alighted an Emirates aircraft just before take-off leading to a three-hour delay. One of the Emirates flight passengers posted images of people alighting the plane in terror of failing to resume life in the US on social media.
In one of the videos, the passengers are observed standing in the aisles, with others being observed scrolling their phones, others looking around, with no idea of whether and when the flight is going to take place.
In a different video, the captain is heard telling the passengers to leave the plane and do so in case they want to, telling about the recent unprecedented situation. Captain speaking, ladies and gentlemen, it is the captain speaking. Because of the present situations, evidently, which are new to us now in this place of Emirates, we understand that some passengers do not want to travel with us, and that is alright. You see, all we request is that, should you want to rid yourself of everything, you do so,” the captain said. The Instagram user, who posted the video, said that the scene was chaotic and the Indian passengers were panicking.
Emirates passengers were in a state of total turmoil at the San Francisco Airport this Friday morning. This order signed by President Trump impacted not only new H1B visa recipients but also old ones, causing panic among lots of people- especially Indian passengers- who even preferred to get off the plane. They reported to have been stranded on the same point for more than three hours, awaiting the departure of the flight.
As he announced an increase in H-1B visa fee, President Trump stated the programme was designed to introduce temporary employees into the US to run additive and high-skilled roles, but it is specifically being abused to replace, instead of supplement, American workers with lower-paid and lower-skilled workers.
After President Trump announced that he was cracking down on immigrants, other large corporations like Meta and Microsoft asked their H-1B visa holders to not leave the US in the next 14 days. The companies encourage their employees who are presently living outside the US to come back to the country in 24 hours to prevent being denied entry back to the country, according to internal emails accessed by NDTV Profit.
Meta encouraged all its H-1B visa and H4 status customers to remain in the US a minimum of two weeks until the practical use is clarified, and those already outside the country to reflect on coming back in the next 24 hours. As opposed to this, Microsoft on its part, advised its workers in the US strongly to remain in the country lest they will be denied the chance to enter again. It also requested the foreign worker to come back as best they can.
The White House made a significant clarification to its new H-1B visa policy that had rocked the tech sector one day after it announced it would increase the visa fee by an exorbitant amount, stating that a payment of 100,000 dollars will be a one-time payment on first time applicants.