A Virginia Tech filing for an H-1B position titled “Rotating Intern,” with a reported annual salary of $54,000, has sparked a debate over whether the visa program is being used for jobs that could be filled by U.S. workers.
The issue drew attention on social media after Chris Brunet shared an image of what he identified as a U.S. Department of Labor Form ETA-9035/9035E, the Labor Condition Application used by employers seeking to employ workers in H-1B specialty occupations.
Brunet wrote on X that Virginia Tech had “just filed a notice of intent to hire” an H-1B worker as a “Rotating Intern,” with a salary of $54,000. He also claimed that “No American citizen was qualified for this job.”
Rep. Riley M. Moore, R-W.Va., reshared Brunet’s post and used the filing to renew his criticism of the H-1B program.
“You’re telling me you can’t find one single solitary American to be a rotating intern…for $54k?!” Moore wrote on X.
“Every time I talk about how we need to end the H-1B program, the cheap foreign labor lobby says they’re only being used for jobs Americans can’t or won’t do,” he added, before calling for an end to what he described as the “H-1B scam.”
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The document circulating online is an LCA, or Labor Condition Application. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Form ETA-9035/9035E is filed by a prospective H-1B employer seeking to employ a nonimmigrant worker in a specific occupation and location. The employer must make a series of attestations concerning the terms and conditions of the proposed employment.
An LCA is part of the H-1B process, but it should not automatically be treated as proof that a foreign worker has already been hired or that an H-1B petition has been approved.
Federal rules require an employer seeking to employ an H-1B worker in a specialty occupation to submit an LCA to the Department of Labor. The application must be certified before it can be used in support of the H-1B process.
The Department of Labor also requires employers filing LCAs to attest to wage and working-condition requirements. Among other things, employers generally must attest that H-1B workers will be paid at least the required wage, based on applicable actual or prevailing wage rules, and that employing the H-1B worker will not adversely affect the working conditions of similarly employed workers.
That distinction is important in the Virginia Tech case because the social media posts make the broader claim that no American worker was qualified for the position.
The publicly circulated post, by itself, does not establish how Virginia Tech conducted its recruitment process, how many U.S. workers applied or why the university determined that an H-1B worker was necessary.
The $54,000 figure has also become a central part of the criticism because the position is described as a “Rotating Intern.”
Publicly available H-1B data for Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia Tech’s legal name, show that the university has previously filed H-1B cases for positions carrying the title “Rotating Intern.” The data include several such filings in Leesburg, Virginia, with salaries ranging from $40,000 in 2023 to $52,000 in 2025.
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The same dataset lists multiple previous “Rotating Intern” filings, including positions beginning in 2024 and 2025. It also shows other Virginia Tech positions across a range of occupations and salary levels.
That history provides context for the latest filing, although the third-party database does not establish the circumstances surrounding the specific 2026 filing highlighted on social media.
The controversy comes as the H-1B program faces renewed scrutiny in Washington over its role in the U.S. labor market.
The Virginia Tech filing has become a flashpoint because of three details highlighted by Brunet and Moore: the “Rotating Intern” job title, the $54,000 salary and the use of the H-1B process.
However, the available information does not establish that Virginia Tech hired a foreign worker instead of a qualified American. An LCA alone also does not establish that an H-1B visa was ultimately issued.
The Department of Labor describes the LCA as a document filed by a prospective H-1B employer and notes that it must be certified before it can be used for the H-1B process.
The filing nevertheless adds a specific example to the broader debate over the H-1B program and whether employers are using the visa for genuinely specialized positions or for jobs that critics argue could be performed by U.S. workers.