President Donald Trump took one of the most consequential policy decisions. He signed a proclamation to increase the costs of H-1B visa applications, imposing an annual fee of $100,000. This decision has raised concerns within the US tech industry, which relies heavily on foreign workers from countries such as India and China. Congress created the H-1B visa program to attract highly skilled foreign workers from around the world to the United States. It has provided 65,000 visas annually, plus another 20,000 for advanced-degree holders.
The H-1B program is crucial to the lifeblood of pristine forests sectors. In tech, that’s not surprising—almost two-thirds of the jobs awarded under these visas are in computer fields. Employers largely use the H-1B visa to hire engineers, educators, and healthcare workers. This visa is essential for them to fill key gaps in specialty expertise that are not obtainable in the U.S. labor market. At present, H-1B visas are approved for an initial three to six-year period.
Large companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta Platforms have reaped the majority of these program’s benefits. During that same time period, Amazon continued to take the top spot with over 10,000 approved H-1B visas. At the same time, both Microsoft and Meta got well north of 5,000 approvals. These numbers underscore how deeply reliant the top technology companies are on foreign-born talent to continue growing and innovating.
Industry experts and industry advocacy groups were disappointed by the introduction of the new fee. Workforce advocates contend that the H-1B program allows businesses to drive down pay and bypass qualified American applicants. Howard Lutnick, the US commerce secretary, led a successful effort to scuttle the increased fee. He thinks it would make companies think twice about bringing the best global talent to the United States.
“Either the person is very valuable to the company and America, or they are going to depart and the company is going to hire an American,” – Howard Lutnick
Other than that, Lutnick’s comments were all great. At the same time, immigration policy expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick countered that the president can’t legally set a fee for visas.
“The president has literally zero legal authority to impose a $100,000 fee on visas. None. Zip. Zilch. The only authority Congress has ever given the executive branch here is to charge fees to recover the cost of processing the application,” – Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
Under the current system, H-1B applicants generally only have to pay a nominal fee to apply to the lottery to be selected for a visa. After that, they hit with other costs that can total in the thousands. The recent proclamation continues a more nefarious trend within US immigration policy. The federal government last week kicked off a new pilot program. This would give consular officers authority to impose bonds of as much as $15,000 on tourist and business visa applicants from countries with high overstay rates.
Supporters of the new fee argue it encourages companies to prioritize training American graduates rather than relying on foreign talent. Lutnick emphasized this position when he stated:
“If you’re going to train somebody, you’re going to train one of the recent graduates from one of the great universities across our land. Train Americans. Stop bringing in people to take our jobs,” – Howard Lutnick
Elon Musk, one of the most famous entrepreneurs in the world today, is a naturalized US citizen born in South Africa. To be sure, he’s benefited from the H-1B program — he used to be an H-1B himself.
As this policy evolves, stakeholders in both the tech and immigration sectors will be watching its effects closely. More importantly, they will actually track how it starts to change dynamics in the US workforce.