Governor directs Florida universities to stop hiring foreign visa holders and prioritize American applicants amid concerns of H1-B “abuse.”
Jorge Cardona | Staff Writer
In an attempt to curb “abuse” of the H1-B visa in state universities, Governor DeSantis announced that he directed the Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the state’s public university system, to stop hiring visa holders and prioritize American applicants.
The H1-B visa is a temporary visa for non-immigrant foreign nationals to work in specific professional fields requiring at least a bachelor’s degree, allowing them to stay in the country for up to six years. As of Sept. 30, there have been 637 H1-B visa beneficiaries approved during the 2025 Fiscal Year in the twelve Florida Board of Governors Universities, with 27 of them approved here at FIU, according to the USCIS.
According to Governor DeSantis, this measure will open the way for American citizens to have access to jobs in the higher education sector and stop the “scam” of “cheap foreign labor” in Florida universities, displacing Americans.
This comes little over a month after FIU announced that no new H1-B applicants would be sponsored by the university as of September 21.
The order also follows the precedent set by the Trump Administration, which has set a new $100,000 application fee for future H1-B applicants, which will end up discouraging foreign professionals from applying.
The Department of Homeland Security also announced that it will no longer issue automatic employment authorization for visa renewals, meaning that many visa holders in the process of renewing could potentially lose their work authorization while they wait for their new visa.
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