US announces investigation into 9 universities, including Ivy League schools, over J-1 visas

The United States has launched a federal investigation into nine major universities, including Ivy League schools like Harvard, Yale and Stanford over their use of J-1 visas, Vice President JD Vance said at a press briefing.

The J-1 visa programme allows foreign nationals to enter the US as exchange visitors, including researchers, scholars, students, teachers and other specialists.

Vance said Labor Department officials had served subpoenas on the universities as part of the investigation. He alleged that some institutions were bringing foreign researchers to the US at wages lower than those paid to American workers.


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The universities named during the briefing included Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of California, Davis, the California Institute of Technology, Arizona State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“We see a lot of fraud where some of America’s most universities bring in foreigners under the wages of American residents,” Vance said.

He alleged that, in one case, a foreign researcher was paid $20,000 less than an American worker for a comparable position. Vance also referred to an example involving a salary difference of $48,000.

“This is a terribly pernicious system. It’s gone for too long,” he said, calling for Congress and the administration to take steps to reform the programme.

Vance said the J-1 visa programme was intended to give American institutions access to highly skilled researchers and professionals. However, he alleged that some employers were using it to reduce labour costs and replace American workers.

“We cannot allow programmes that were designed to ensure that American corporations had access to the best and the brightest to be used to undercut the wages of workers,” Vance said.

He also distinguished between foreign workers who come to the US to build companies and create jobs, and those whom employers allegedly bring in at lower wages to replace American workers.

“If you want the visa programme to stop being used to defraud the taxpayer and undercut the wages of workers, we will help you do everything that we can to ensure the programme was designed for America,” Vance said.