Elon Musk Urges 'Major Reforms' to H-1B Visas

After vowing to "go to war" to defend the H-1B visa programme, tech billionaire Elon Musk has softened his stand on the issue by calling for reforms in the "broken" system used to bring skilled foreign workers to the US.

- Agencies

WASHINGTON:

Musk, along with Indian-American tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, has been tapped by Trump to lead his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Last week, Musk argued that foreign workers were needed for tech companies like Musk's SpaceX and Tesla.

"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 H-1B," Musk last week wrote on X.

Musk, however, appeared to retract his earlier statement in response to a post by an X user who said America needed to be a destination for the world's most "elite talent" but argued the current H-1B system was not the solution.

"Easily fixed by raising the minimum salary significantly and adding a yearly cost for maintaining the H-1B, making it materially more expensive to hire from overseas than domestically. I've been very clear that the programme is broken and needs major reform," Musk on Sunday said in a post on X.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.