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Texas has paused H-1B visas at its public universities (and agencies), and Florida appears poised to do the same

Brian Leiter

This will be very bad for the public universities in these states. According to the preceding CHE article, the University of Florida had 131 such visas approved just in 2025; Texas A&M had 121 and UT Soutwestern (a major medical research center in Dallas) had 119. Any university strong in the natural and biological sciences is going to be appointing lots of foreign faculty and post-docs every year. At least for Texas, it may be possible to still get such visas with permission from the Workforce Commission and a showing that there were no qualified Texans who could have taken the position instead. If anyone has more information, feel free to post links.

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4 responses to “Texas has paused H-1B visas at its public universities (and agencies), and Florida appears poised to do the same”

  1. Untenured Florida faculty member

    In Florida the policy is imminent but not finalized: we have just begun a two-week “public comment” period. Although I am not especially optimistic about the impact of public feedback, I do hope many people will register their objections, especially anyone who can plausibly present themselves as a stakeholder in the Florida system (eg: do you advise students about to go to grad school? Do you have children, grandchildren, nephews or nieces that you will discourage from attending Florida universities if this policy is announced? Do you review graduate or employment applications from alumni of Florida universities? etc).

    Here is the page with the policy proposal and the comment submission form: https://www.flbog.edu/regulations/proposed-regulations/
    The relevant policy and comment-submission link is the first of the three listed, “1.001, University Board of Trustees Powers and Duties.”

    Reply
  2. AS

    I think that as long as the $100,000 H1-B fee is in place (it is being challenged through the courts) the Texas and Florida moves are largely a moot point. I don’t think anyone can actually afford to hire foreign faculty on these terms. In fact, there was just an article in Yale Daily News about the difficulty this is posing: https://yaledailynews.com/articles/departments-face-hurdle-to-hiring-foreign-scholars-with-trump-visa-fee

    Reply
    1. anonymous international job seeker

      “I think that as long as the $100,000 H1-B fee is in place (it is being challenged through the courts) the Texas and Florida moves are largely a moot point. I don’t think anyone can actually afford to hire foreign faculty on these terms.”

      This is NOT true and completely uninformed. Consider someone in my situation. I’m a current PhD student in the US on an F1 visa. If I get hired at a US institution, I can upgrade my F1 status to H1B *without being subject to the fee.* So it is perfectly possible under the current circumstances for US institutions to hire foreign faculty, as long as they are already in the US on a different visa. What it makes difficult is to hire foreign workers who aren’t *already* in the US.

      As it happens, I’m currently interviewing for a job in Florida, so if this policy goes through I am very much affected. So please, don’t call this a “moot point” if you don’t have the proper information.

      Reply
      1. AS

        I stand corrected. It is only a moot point when it comes to hiring foreign faculty not already in the US. Good luck.

        Reply

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