From Elon Musk to Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, these tech leaders had been as soon as H-1B visa holders 

President Donald Trump is seeking to limit and overhaul the H-1 B visa program, which has allowed U.S. firms to rent international expertise in occupations corresponding to IT, healthcare and engineering for many years.

This system has been a subject of debate amongst lawmakers in Washington for years, with many opponents arguing that it removes job alternatives for U.S. nationals and is rife with abuse.

In response, Trump introduced a plan to impose $100,000 charges on H-1B functions, which might severely influence American firms’ means to assist the visas.

One factor that may’t be disputed, nevertheless, is that this system has been a part of the journey of a substantial variety of American expertise and enterprise leaders since its inception in 1990.

Here’s a listing of among the highest-profile ones. 

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and the founding father of a raft of distinguished tech firms within the U.S., will not be solely one of the crucial distinguished H-1B visa recipients but additionally one of the crucial vocal advocates of this system.

Initially born in South Africa, Musk moved to the U.S. in 1992 when he transferred to the College of Pennsylvania to pursue his research. He later attended Stanford earlier than dropping out to pursue entrepreneurial ventures in Silicon Valley. 

Whereas some particulars of his early visa scenario have been debated, Musk has gone on report saying the explanation he’s within the U.S., together with “so many important individuals who constructed SpaceX, Tesla and tons of of different firms that made America sturdy,” was the H-1B visa. 

Nonetheless, the billionaire, who has grow to be extremely concerned in U.S. and international politics, has additionally supported the overhaul and reformation of the H-1B system prior to now. 

Eric Yuan,  the 55-year-old founder and CEO of Zoom, immigrated to the U.S. from China in 1997 on an H-1B visa, although his journey was something however straightforward.

Yuan was sponsored for his H-1B visa to work as an engineer at Cisco-Webex, however was solely accepted for it on his ninth strive, he stated in a Cloud Large podcast in 2020.

Regardless of talking little or no English upon his arrival within the U.S., he would go on to launch Zoom in 2011. The corporate’s IPO in 2019 valued Yuan’s shares within the billions.

Whereas Yuan has not publicly commented a lot in regards to the H-1B visa program, he advised CNBC in 2019 that america’ openness to immigration is wholesome and that he expects that tradition to persist.

Born and raised in India, Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO of Microsoft, can also be a former recipient of an H-1B visa, although his circumstances had been fairly distinctive. 

Having been within the U.S. since 1990, he held a extremely coveted inexperienced card till he gave it as much as convey his spouse into the nation by a profitable, however in any other case dangerous, H-1B visa software in 1994. 

“The concept that you need to surrender your inexperienced card to get an H-1B is, looking back, foolish. And so subsequently allow us to in reality take the reform in order that it really works for us, each our safety however in addition to our competitiveness,” stated Nadella in a 2017 interview with CNBC. 

Again in 2017, talking on the ‘Make Me Good’ podcast, Nadella defended the H-1B visa program, saying that it offered Microsoft with high-skilled labor that helped it stay globally aggressive, although he welcomed an government order reviewing H-1B for abuses below the primary Trump administration.

Jayshree Ullal, CEO of cloud networking firm Arista Networks, was born in the UK and raised in New Delhi, earlier than she moved to the U.S. on the age of 16 and commenced her research at San Francisco State College.

After ending a grasp’s at Santa Clara College, she labored for distinguished tech firms like Fairchild Semiconductor, Superior Micro Units and Cisco.

Someplace in that point, Ullal had been a recipient of an H-1B visa, a consultant of the CEO had previously disclosed to Forbes. Arista didn’t reply to a request for remark from CNBC.

Whereas particulars of Ullal’s H-1B journey are unknown, she has voiced assist for immigration reform and simpler pathways for international staff to the U.S. prior to now.

Chatting with Instances of India in 2023, she stated the immigration course of had grow to be overly difficult with everlasting residence visas taking as much as 15 years to safe, which is “a big chunk of an expert particular person’s work life.”

“At Arista, we consider that one of the best builders can come from wherever and there’s a international distribution of engineering expertise — digital or bodily,” she added.

Ullal is among the handful of immigrant billionaires within the U.S. at the moment with a web price of $6 billion, based on Forbes.

Jeff Skoll, the primary President of eBay — now a philanthropist and chairman of Capricorn Funding Group — is one other former H-1B visa holder who has defended this system, whereas supporting reforms.

As a Canadian, he graduated from the College of Toronto in 1987 earlier than he got here to America to check at Stanford College. He would later get hold of an H-1B visa in 1996 when he started working for eBay and its founder, Pierre Omidyar. 

In December final 12 months, Skoll was alongside Elon Musk defending the H-1B visa, whereas additionally advocating for enhancements and sure reforms to this system.

“For me personally it was a life [and] dying struggle to get and maintain an H-1B visa, despite the fact that I had come out of Stanford Enterprise Faculty, labored with Pierre Omidyar on [a student work visa] whereas we constructed eBay from scratch,” he stated in an X publish.

Skoll stated he almost wanted to depart the nation after being turned down for an H-1B visa extension if it hadn’t been for his sturdy connections on the time.

He added that eBay and his different organizations have run into numerous issues making use of for H-1Bs, despite the fact that the work required was very specialised most often, and there have been no home candidates.