The fight over the next H-1B fee moved from the White House to the comment docket this week. The window to comment on DHS's proposed $103,265 fee for cap-subject H-1B petitions closed on 24 September, with the US Chamber of Commerce and the tech lobby TechNet both on record against it. On the same Thursday, Adobe and Salesforce posted their 2027 new-grad software engineering reqs, the first big-tech openings in a few weeks, and HRT posted a 2027 data science internship at $5,800 a week.
Everything else was follow-through: the Labor Department's inspector general promised a very different H-1B programme within a year, Xbox cut 268 more jobs, and a State Department vetting expansion takes effect on 1 October.
Applications that opened or closed
| Company | Role | Region | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe | 2027 University Graduate – Software Engineer | San Jose, SF, Austin, Seattle, Lehi, New York | Posted 24 Sep | Adobe careers |
| Salesforce | Software Engineering AMTS (College Grad) | SF, Palo Alto, Seattle, Bellevue, Dallas, Indianapolis | Posted 24 Sep | Salesforce careers |
| Scale AI | Software Engineer, Public Sector – New Grad | San Francisco | Published 23 Sep | Scale AI |
| HRT | Data Scientist Intern – 2027 | New York, London | Published 22 Sep | HRT |
| Jump Trading | Campus Quantitative Researcher, Trading Team (PhD/Postdoc, full-time) | New York | Published 22 Sep | Jump Trading |
| IMC | Hardware Machine Learning PhD Research Internship | Chicago | Published 23 Sep | IMC |
| IMC | 2027 EU Chess Academy (expression of interest) | Europe | Published 21 Sep; applications open January | IMC |
Dates come from each company's applicant-tracking system (Workday or Greenhouse), retrieved 28 September 2026. A published date can be a repost, so read it as "visible again from" rather than "hiring started on".
Adobe wants a bachelor's or master's in CS or a related field with an expected graduation date between December 2026 and June 2027. The US pay range is $76,700 to $152,200, and $105,100 to $152,200 in California and New York (Adobe careers, retrieved 28 September 2026). Salesforce's AMTS req is the entry point to its Futureforce programme, which the posting describes as a year-long graduate programme. It gives a typical base of $110,000 to $153,000, rising to $141,000 to $163,000 in select San Francisco and New York City locations (Salesforce careers, retrieved 28 September 2026).
As with Stripe last week, the aggregators run higher than the postings: the speedyapply 2027 new-grad board lists Adobe at "$168k/yr" and Salesforce at "$176k/yr" (updated 27 September). Those figures likely fold in more than base pay. Use the posted range when you compare offers.
Scale AI's public-sector seat is a product engineering job on agent systems for US government customers. It asks for a graduation date in Fall 2026 or Spring 2027 and a previous software internship, and it involves deploying into "secure, air-gapped" environments (Scale AI, retrieved 28 September 2026). Read that as a likely citizenship or clearance requirement before you spend a cover letter on it; the posting does not say.
On the quant side, HRT's Data Scientist internship is the most accessible new listing. It pays a weekly base of $5,800 in New York and 4,350 GBP in London, plus housing and meals. It asks for any STEM degree ("a computer science background is not required") and Python at the level of Wes McKinney's Python for Data Analysis, and it allows only one application across HRT's roles (HRT careers, posted 22 September 2026). Jump's campus QR role is for current PhD students and postdocs, sits on a systematic macro team, and lists a base of $200,000 to $250,000 plus discretionary bonus (Jump Trading, posted 22 September 2026). IMC added a PhD internship on putting ML models onto FPGAs and custom chips in Chicago, and opened interest registration for its European student chess tournament, which runs with Team Liquid and ends with finals in Amsterdam.
We found no new full-time quant trader or researcher reqs for undergraduates this week. The Quant section of the speedyapply new-grad board had nothing newer than a week old in its 27 September update.
Interview and process changes
Adobe's new-grad posting now carries an explicit AI rule. Using AI tools during live interviews "is not permitted unless explicitly invited by the interviewer" or approved as an accommodation, and misuse means the application "may not move forward" (Adobe careers, retrieved 28 September 2026). Its linked candidate guide says AI is fine for preparing a resume and researching the company, but not for recording, live scribing, or prompting during a conversation (Adobe, "AI and your hiring experience", retrieved 28 September 2026).
That is the pattern now: AI allowed in the application, banned in the room. If you want to practise answering without a prompt in your ear, Applr's Google L3 software engineer mock runs a timed coding and behavioural loop in that format.
Comp, layoffs, and expansions
Xbox eliminated 268 roles on 22 September across Halo Studios, other first-party studios, and the Xbox Game Studios management layer, according to a post by Matt Booty. In the same post, Activision took over the next Halo game, Rare and World's Edge (Xbox Wire, 22 September 2026). OPB reported the cuts as falling in Washington state and as the latest phase of a downsizing Microsoft announced in July (OPB, 22 September 2026). This was a reorganisation of game studios. We saw nothing on Microsoft's early-career engineering hiring: its Intune team posted a new-grad-eligible software engineer role in Cambridge, Massachusetts the same week (speedyapply, updated 27 September 2026).
Crunchbase News's layoffs tracker had not been updated since 16 September when we checked, so we are not reporting a weekly total.
Visa and policy
The $103,265 H-1B fee: comments closed
The proposal to charge $103,265 on every cap-subject H-1B petition, including master's-cap filings, stopped taking comments on 24 September (Boundless, 25 September 2026). DHS can now withdraw, revise or finalise it.
The US Chamber of Commerce's comment, filed that day, makes three arguments a student should know. It says about 76% of small entities that file H-1B petitions would face costs above 1% of annual revenue. It says consular H-1B receipts fell 91% after the earlier $100,000 proclamation fee. And it notes that 56% of computer science master's students in the US are international, so the fee lands hardest on exactly the pipeline new grads come from (US Chamber of Commerce, 24 September 2026). The Chamber also argues the fee exceeds DHS's cost-recovery authority, which is the ground a lawsuit would most likely use. TechNet, whose members include Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic, told DHS the proposal "undermines" American competitiveness, according to the Wall Street Journal's report (via yourNEWS, 24 September 2026).
The Labor Department's inspector general
In an interview reported on 27 September, DOL Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito said the foreign-labour visa programme is "going to look very different 365 days from now" (Business Today, 27 September 2026). His office has issued dozens of subpoenas, and the Labor Department has suspended visa applications involving Cognizant and Cloudera while a criminal investigation continues (Business Today). Mayer Brown's 17 September alert dates the first PERM suspensions, against an IT services firm and a data software company, to 8 September.
The enforcement so far targets outsourcing and staffing firms, not companies that hire new grads directly. What should change your plans is the combination with the layoffs executive order from 18 September. Its 30-day deadline for Labor to start reviewing filed LCAs falls on 18 October, and implementing guidance has still not appeared.
On Blind, a White House & Policy thread about the order, started around 21 September by an ex-Amazon poster, split along company lines. Some commenters at Amazon and IBM welcomed it as protection for US workers. Commenters at Oracle and Adobe argued it would push work offshore rather than create jobs here. One commenter pointed out that companies already hire through Global Capability Centres in India and Spain, so visa rules may matter less than the offshoring trend.
Social media vetting widens on 1 October
From 1 October, the State Department's online presence review extends to I, TN and TD visa applicants, who must set social media profiles to public. The change was announced on 18 September (GIP, 22 September 2026). F-1, J, H-1B and H-4 applicants are already covered (Boundless, 25 September 2026). For most international students this changes nothing new. For a Canadian or Mexican graduate planning to start work on a TN, it is a new step before the consular or port-of-entry application.
Still pending
| Item | Status on 28 Sep 2026 | Next date |
|---|---|---|
| $103,265 H-1B cap petition fee (proposed) | Comments closed 24 Sep | DHS final rule or withdrawal |
| $100,000 H-1B fee (proclamation) | Renewed to 21 Sep 2027; fee vacated by court, not collected | Appeal ruling |
| H-1B layoffs executive order | Signed 18 Sep; guidance pending | DOL LCA review starts by 18 Oct |
| F-1 duration of status rule | Postponed nationwide by court | Hearing 2 Oct |
| OPT fee rule (proposed) | Cleared White House review 11 Sep; not published | Federal Register, then 30–60 day comments |
| Social media review for I/TN/TD | Announced 18 Sep | Effective 1 Oct |
| UK Graduate visa cut to 18 months | Announced Oct 2025 | Applications from 1 Jan 2027 |
The OPT fee remains the item with the most direct effect on a 2027 graduate, and there is still no number. Fragomen's 14 September alert says details "will not be known until publication in the Federal Register". We found no such publication by 28 September. In the UK, anyone finishing a master's in 2026–27 who applies for the Graduate visa from 1 January 2027 gets 18 months rather than two years (Visa Atlas, 3 September 2026). That shorter window is worth planning a job search around now.
What to do this week
1. Apply to Adobe and Salesforce now if you graduate by mid-2027. Big-tech new-grad reqs this late in the cycle tend to fill on a rolling basis. Check that your resume clears their filters with the free ATS resume checker first.
2. Pick one HRT role, not three. HRT says it considers you for all open positions from a single application, so choose the one your background fits best. The HRT quant researcher mock covers the probability and research questions for its QR track.
3. Ask the layoffs question early. Before a five-round loop at a company that cut staff this year, ask the recruiter whether it is still filing H-1B petitions for 2027 hires. The DOL review deadline is 18 October.
4. Treat Scale AI's public-sector role as clearance-track. Confirm eligibility before applying if you are on F-1.
5. Use the New Grad 2027 tracker for the quant and big-tech reqs that opened in August. Last week's roundup, F-1 Rule Blocked, $100K H-1B Fee Renewed, has the background on the D/S hearing on 2 October.
Sources
- Boundless, "This Week in Immigration: September 25, 2026", 25 September 2026
- US Chamber of Commerce, "Comment to DHS's NPRM Imposing Fee of $103,265 on All H-1B Visa Petitions", 24 September 2026
- yourNEWS (reporting the Wall Street Journal), "Tech Giants Push Back on Trump Administration's Proposed $103,265 H-1B Visa Fee", 24 September 2026
- Federal Register, "Fee for Certain H-1B Petitions", 25 August 2026
- Business Today, "'Going to look very different in 365 days': US Labor Dept watchdog warns amid H-1B crackdown", 27 September 2026
- Mayer Brown, "Trump Administration Announces New Enforcement Actions Against Employers in H-1B and PERM Fraud Probes", 17 September 2026
- GIP, "State Department Expands Online Presence Review to TN, TD, and I Visa Applicants Beginning October 1, 2026", 22 September 2026
- Fragomen, "DHS Optional Practical Training Fee Proposal Clears Federal Review", 14 September 2026
- Visa Atlas, "UK publishes Immigration Rules changes taking effect across October, November and December 2026", 3 September 2026
- Blind, "Trump signs EO renewing $100k H1B fee and ordering agencies to go after companies that laid off Americans before H1Bs", September 2026
- Xbox Wire, "Continuing Our Reset", 22 September 2026
- OPB, "Microsoft lays off 268 Xbox employees in Washington state", 22 September 2026
- Crunchbase News, tech layoffs tracker, retrieved 28 September 2026
- Adobe careers, "2027 University Graduate - Software Engineer", retrieved 28 September 2026
- Adobe careers, "AI and your hiring experience", retrieved 28 September 2026
- Salesforce careers, "Software Engineering AMTS (College Grad)", retrieved 28 September 2026
- Scale AI, "Software Engineer, Public Sector - New Grad", retrieved 28 September 2026
- HRT careers, "Data Scientist Intern - 2027" (New York), retrieved 28 September 2026
- HRT careers, "Data Scientist Intern - 2027" (London), retrieved 28 September 2026
- Jump Trading, "Campus Quantitative Researcher | Trading Team PhD/Postdoc (Full-Time)", retrieved 28 September 2026
- IMC, "Hardware Machine Learning PhD Research Internship", retrieved 28 September 2026
- IMC, "2027 EU Chess Academy - Expression of Interest", retrieved 28 September 2026
- speedyapply, 2027 SWE College Jobs new-grad board, updated 27 September 2026
Frequently asked questions
- Is the $103,265 H-1B fee final?
- No. The comment period on the proposed fee closed on 24 September 2026 (Boundless, 25 September 2026). DHS now has to review the comments before it can withdraw, revise or finalise the rule, and nothing is payable until a final rule is published with an effective date. The US Chamber of Commerce and TechNet, whose members include Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic, both filed opposition.
- Which big-tech new grad roles opened this week?
- Adobe posted its 2027 University Graduate Software Engineer role on 24 September for graduates finishing between December 2026 and June 2027, with a California and New York pay range of $105,100 to $152,200. Salesforce posted Software Engineering AMTS (College Grad) the same day, with a typical base of $110,000 to $153,000. Scale AI posted a Public Sector new-grad software engineer role in San Francisco on 23 September (company job boards, retrieved 28 September 2026).
- How much does the HRT Data Scientist internship pay?
- HRT's 2027 Data Scientist Intern posting lists a weekly base of $5,800 in New York and 4,350 GBP in London, plus company-paid housing and meals (HRT careers, posted 22 September 2026). It asks for Python at the level of Wes McKinney's Python for Data Analysis and says a computer science background is not required. HRT allows only one application, so pick the role you want most.
- Does the October 1 social media rule affect F-1 students?
- F-1, J, H-1B and H-4 applicants are already covered by the State Department's social media review. The change from 1 October 2026 extends it to I, TN and TD applicants, who must set their profiles to public (GIP, 22 September 2026; Boundless, 25 September 2026). For a Canadian or Mexican graduate planning to start on a TN visa, it is new.
- Is the OPT fee in effect?
- No. The proposed Optional Practical Training Fees rule cleared White House review on 11 September 2026, but the amount is not public and the proposal has to be published in the Federal Register and go through a 30 to 60 day comment period first (Fragomen, 14 September 2026). We found no Federal Register publication as of 28 September.