DEVELOPMENT
Financing the American Dream
SOME H-1B ASPIRANTS ARE TURNING TO AN ALTERNATIVE METHOD TO ENSURE THEIR U. S. FUTURE.
By ALI JAHANGIRI
T
he“ American Dream” is a trope often portrayed in films and in books— pull yourself up by the bootstraps and you, too, can have the accoutrements of the good life. The American Dream stretches beyond U. S. borders, enticing those oversea to jettison their native country to pursue it. Like attaining the American Dream, it isn’ t easy.
One of the ways to get started has traditionally been through the H-1B visa program, which allows U. S. employers to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations where a bachelor’ s degree( or equivalent) is required.
But in today’ s immigration crucible, the H-1B is under fire, forcing some to look for an alternative to U. S. residence
Established by the Immigration Act of 1990, the program’ s initial goal was to address shortages in fields including technology, engineering and science. The visa’ s duration is typically six years and, as an added bonus, holders of the visa can bring with them immediate family members. The program is capped at 65,000 new visas each year, although an additional 20,000 can be issued for employees with a master’ s degree or higher, according to the U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Some of the smartest minds are outside the U. S.; it’ s no surprise, then, that companies at the vanguard of technology and AI, from Nvidia to OpenAI, are dependent on the program. According to Business Insider, Nvidia, a company with 36,000 global employees, filed for 1,519 H-1B work visas in 2025. They aren’ t the only one, by a long shot. The National Foundation for American Policy notes that Amazon led the way in H-1B petitions approved in fiscal-year 2024 at 3,871.
Tesla had 742 petitions and in 2024, its billionaire CEO Elon Musk took to his social media platform X posting:“ The reason I’ m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B.” He then dropped an explicative, adding“ I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.”
Going to battle with Musk is something Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent might know, but recently the H-1B visa has come under fire from on-again-off-again Musk confidante, President Donald Trump. Much of the president’ s agenda has been focused on cracking down on illegal immigrants with less attention paid to employment-based visas.( At the same time, there has been a crackdown on foreign students. More than 1,000 international
64 hotelsmag. com July / August 2025