Vice President JD Vance accused universities of relying too heavily on J-1 visas to bring students and researchers to the US, saying the practice was depressing the wages of American graduate students and researchers. “They are using these visas way too much. They are using them to undercut the wages of American grad students and American researchers, and it simply has to stop.”
On Thursday, the Trump administration announced an investigation into whether Stanford, Caltech, UC Davis and other universities had abused the visa, which permits international scholars and students to conduct research and work in the US.
The administration also suspended Microsoft, Adobe and six other technology companies from sponsoring employees through a programme for highly skilled workers. Most of the targeted companies were Indian.
Vance said Microsoft had been the greatest abuser of the system. “There's been no company, unfortunately, in the United States that has abused this system more than Microsoft.”
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Anthony D'Esposito, the Labor Department inspector general, said subpoenas had been served on universities. “Nobody will be getting a free pass because their name is carved into an expensive building,” he said.
The moves come as a federal court has stopped a separate administration effort to limit the time international students can remain in the country. Since 1978, foreign students on F visas have been able to stay for their “duration of status”, meaning as long as they remained enrolled full-time.
In July, the administration announced rules that would have limited international students to a maximum stay of four years. The proposed changes were expected to affect doctoral students especially sharply, since such programmes typically take five years to seven years to complete.
A federal judge at a district court in Boston blocked the rule on Monday, one day before it was due to take effect. The judge ruled for unions and higher education advocacy groups, finding that the homeland security department had relied on “exceptionally weak” rationales.
The rule would also affect people on cultural exchange programmes with J visas and international journalists holding I visas. Media visas would be limited to 240 days.
The court warned that the likely harm to higher education and the US economy would be “catastrophic”. James Percival, general counsel for the homeland security department, criticised the ruling, arguing that it could let foreigners remain in the US for decades even if they only “take one class per semester”.
About 1.6 million international students held F visas in the US as of 2024. New international student enrolment fell 17 percent in fall 2025 compared with the previous year. There are currently 3.3 lakh students from India studying in the US.
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