Major medtech company Intuitive is halting H-1B sponsorships. Headquartered in California, the Silicon Valley giant is “a global technology leader in minimally invasive care and the pioneer of robotic-assisted surgery,” as per its LinkedIn introduction, which also indicated that it houses over 10,000 employees.
In light of US President Donald Trump signing the new proclamation that imposed a $100,00 fee on new H-1B visa applications, Intuitive has already pivoted just days later. As a result of the current immigration overhaul consuming the United States, the company issued its latest stand on the visa policy changes in more than 100 job listings.
Intuitive pauses H-1B hirings
“Due to the uncertainty caused by the recent US executive proclamation, we are temporarily pausing offers to candidates who require H-1B visa sponsorship,” Intuitive declared.
According to Business Insider, the S&P 500 member which generated $8 billion in revenue last year and has a market cap of over $150 billion has over 13,000 employees on the global network. Founded in 1995, the company has backed more than 1,500 H-1B petitions since 2009, as per the US Citizenship and Immigration Services website.
New H-1B visa fee and its impact
As has long been established, this particular temporary and nonimmigrant visa category which helps bring in skilled talent for “specialty occupations” has been largely dominated by Indian nationals. Last year, more than 70% recipients of the H-1B category were from India.
Less than a week ago, as Donald Trump signed the new executive order and imposed the staggering fee, even existing visa holders couldn’t help but panic. However, the White House has since clarified that recipients who participated in the 2025 lottery cycle will not be affected by the new change.
“The Proclamation does not apply to anyone who has a current visa,” the official Rapid Response account for the Trump White House stated on X. “The Proclamation does not impact the ability of any current visa holder to travel to/from the US.”
However, the chaos had already set into motion long before the official statement was issued visa social media. Tech giants and banks, including Amazon, Microsoft and Goldman Sachs, were left with no choice but to quickly push out memos informing employees not to leave the country.
Originally, the H-1B fee per application ranged from $2,000 to $5,000.