The Florida Board of Governors on Monday approved a temporary ban on using H-1B visas to hire within the state’s public universities.
The pause on H-1B visas, which offer temporary occupation for specialty workers, will be in effect until Jan. 5. Current employees will not be impacted.
In October, Gov. Ron DeSantis said he instructed the State University System to “pull the plug” on the visas, calling them “cheap labor.”
From October 2024 to June 2025, the University of Florida employed 156 H-1B visa holders. The University of South Florida employed 72, and Florida State University employed 69.
Board member Alan Levine said he’s spoken with State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues and university presidents about collecting health care access and wellness data over the next year.
“Just because this is an eight-month pause does not mean we can’t come back and start things back up as we learn what we need to learn,” Levine said.
Board member Ken Jones asked how current faculty members on H-1B visas will be impacted if their contract ends during the ban.
Current faculty members’ contracts may be renewed during the course of the pause, Rodrigues said. He also said if there is a need for an exception, the board could turn around a response in 72 hours.
The only two board members to vote against the ban were Carson Dale and Kimberly Dunn.
Dale, the student board member, said he worries the ban will cause serious reputational damage to the state’s universities.
“I think that that sends a message to people looking at Florida, that it’s not going to be a place that they can count on to be able to come work,” he said.