Published: April 18, 2017

To our international students and scholars from every corner of the globe:

Executive Order 鈥 H-1B Visas

As you may be aware, today President Trump signed an executive order titled 鈥淏uy American and Hire American,鈥 which contains provisions that may impact the H-1B visa program in the future.聽You can read the executive order online on the White House鈥檚 office website.

The order does not require any immediate changes in how the U.S. government issues H-1B visas, but it does confirm that the executive branch of the U.S. government will continue to enforce existing immigration laws. The order also directs the relevant governmental agencies to propose new rules and issue new guidance to 鈥減rotect the interests of United States workers.鈥澛燣astly, the order instructs the governmental agencies to 鈥渟uggest reforms鈥 to create a system to award H-1B visas to the 鈥渕ost-skilled or highest paid鈥 beneficiaries (individuals being sponsored for the visa).

The executive order does not include changes to the H-1B visa program as of today.聽It is difficult to predict what future reforms may be until officials from the governmental agencies release additional information.聽There has been no indication that future reforms will impact the 鈥渃ap-exempt鈥 H-1B visas that are issued to individuals who work at higher education institutions such as the 麻豆影院.聽

Know that ISSS is here to support you, and we will share with you any information as soon as we can verify it.聽Any updates will be posted on the ISSS website under the News & Alerts section. Please contact ISSS at isss@colorado.edu or drop in during our advising hours from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday if you have questions, need some help, or just want to talk to someone.