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Tag: H-1B visa

  • Trump administration moves to overhaul how H-1B visas are granted, ending lottery system

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    The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday it was replacing its longstanding lottery system for H-1B work visas with a new approach that prioritizes skilled, higher-paid foreign workers.The change follows a series of actions by the Trump administration aimed at reshaping a visa program that critics say has become a pipeline for overseas workers willing to work for lower pay, but supporters say drives innovation.”The existing random selection process of H-1B registrations was exploited and abused by U.S. employers who were primarily seeking to import foreign workers at lower wages than they would pay American workers,” said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Matthew Tragesser.Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation imposing a $100,000 annual H-1B visa fee on highly skilled workers, which is being challenged in court. The president also rolled out a $1 million “gold card” visa as a pathway to U.S. citizenship for wealthy individuals.A press release announcing the new rule says it is “in line with other key changes the administration has made, such as the Presidential Proclamation that requires employers to pay an additional $100,000 per visa as a condition of eligibility.” Historically, H-1B visas have been awarded through a lottery system. This year, Amazon was by far the top recipient, with more than 10,000 visas approved, followed by Tata Consultancy Services, Microsoft, Apple and Google. California has the highest concentration of H-1B workers.The new system will “implement a weighted selection process that will increase the probability that H-1B visas are allocated to higher-skilled and higher-paid” foreign workers, according to Tuesday’s press release. It will go into effect Feb. 27, 2026, and will apply to the upcoming H-1B cap registration season.Supporters of the H-1B program say it is an important pathway to hiring healthcare workers and educators. They say it drives innovation and economic growth in the U.S. and allows employers to fill jobs in specialized fields.Critics argue that the visas often go to entry-level positions rather than senior roles requiring specialized skills. While the program is intended to prevent wage suppression or the displacement of U.S. workers, critics say companies can pay lower wages by classifying jobs at the lowest skill levels, even when the workers hired have more experience.The number of new visas issued annually is capped at 65,000, plus an additional 20,000 for people with a master’s degree or higher.

    WASHINGTON —

    The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday it was replacing its longstanding lottery system for H-1B work visas with a new approach that prioritizes skilled, higher-paid foreign workers.

    The change follows a series of actions by the Trump administration aimed at reshaping a visa program that critics say has become a pipeline for overseas workers willing to work for lower pay, but supporters say drives innovation.

    “The existing random selection process of H-1B registrations was exploited and abused by U.S. employers who were primarily seeking to import foreign workers at lower wages than they would pay American workers,” said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Matthew Tragesser.

    Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation imposing a $100,000 annual H-1B visa fee on highly skilled workers, which is being challenged in court. The president also rolled out a $1 million “gold card” visa as a pathway to U.S. citizenship for wealthy individuals.

    A press release announcing the new rule says it is “in line with other key changes the administration has made, such as the Presidential Proclamation that requires employers to pay an additional $100,000 per visa as a condition of eligibility.”

    Historically, H-1B visas have been awarded through a lottery system. This year, Amazon was by far the top recipient, with more than 10,000 visas approved, followed by Tata Consultancy Services, Microsoft, Apple and Google. California has the highest concentration of H-1B workers.

    The new system will “implement a weighted selection process that will increase the probability that H-1B visas are allocated to higher-skilled and higher-paid” foreign workers, according to Tuesday’s press release. It will go into effect Feb. 27, 2026, and will apply to the upcoming H-1B cap registration season.

    Supporters of the H-1B program say it is an important pathway to hiring healthcare workers and educators. They say it drives innovation and economic growth in the U.S. and allows employers to fill jobs in specialized fields.

    Critics argue that the visas often go to entry-level positions rather than senior roles requiring specialized skills. While the program is intended to prevent wage suppression or the displacement of U.S. workers, critics say companies can pay lower wages by classifying jobs at the lowest skill levels, even when the workers hired have more experience.

    The number of new visas issued annually is capped at 65,000, plus an additional 20,000 for people with a master’s degree or higher.

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  • Trump ran on ‘America first.’ Now he views presidency as a ‘worldwide situation’

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    WASHINGTON — On the campaign trail, Donald Trump was unapologetic about putting America first. He promised to secure the nation’s borders, strengthen the domestic workforce and be tough on countries he thought were taking advantage of the United States.

    Now, 10 months into his second term, the president is facing backlash from some conservatives who say he is too focused on matters abroad, whether it’s seeking regime change in Venezuela, brokering peace deals in Ukraine and Gaza or extending a $20-billion currency swap for Argentina. The criticism has grown in recent days after Trump expressed support for granting more visas to foreign students and skilled immigrant workers.

    The cracks in the MAGA movement, which have been more pronounced in recent weeks, underscore how Trump’s once impenetrable political base is wavering as the president appears to embrace a more global approach to governing.

    “I have to view the presidency as a worldwide situation, not locally,” Trump said this week when asked to address the criticism at an Oval Office event. “We could have a world that’s on fire where wars come to our shores very easily if you had a bad president.”

    For backers of Trump’s MAGA movement, the conflict is forcing some to weigh loyalty to an “America first” ideology over a president they have long supported and who, in some cases, inspired them to get involved in the political process.

    “I am against foreign aid, foreign wars, and sending a single dollar to foreign countries,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who in recent weeks has become more critical of Trump’s policies, said in a social media post Wednesday. “I am America First and America Only. This is my way and there is no other way to be.”

    Beyond America-first concerns, some Trump supporters are frustrated with him for resisting the disclosures about the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his network of powerful friends — including Trump. A group of Republicans in the House, for instance, helped lead an effort to force a vote to demand further disclosures on the Epstein files from the Justice Department.

    “When they are protecting pedophiles, when they are blowing our budget, when they are starting wars overseas, I’m sorry, I can’t go along with that,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said in a CNN interview. “And back home, people agree with me. They understand, even the most ardent Trump supporters understand.”

    When asked to respond to the criticism Trump has faced in recent weeks, the White House said the president was focused on implementing “economic policies that are cutting costs, raising real wages, and securing trillions in investments to make and hire in America.”

    Mike Madrid, a “never Trump” Republican consultant, believes the Epstein scandal has sped up a Republican backlash that has been brewing as a result of Trump deviating from his campaign promises.

    “They are turning on him, and it’s a sign of the inviolable trust being gone,” Madrid said.

    The MAGA movement was not led by a policy ideology, but rather “fealty to the leader,” Madrid said. Once the trust in Trump fades, “everything is gone.”

    Criticism of Trump goes mainstream

    The intraparty tension also has played out on conservative and mainstream news outlets, where the president has been challenged on his policies.

    In a recent Fox News interview with Laura Ingraham, Trump was pressed on a plan to give student visas to hundreds of thousands of Chinese students, a move that would mark a departure from actions taken by his administration this year to crack down on foreign students.

    “I think it is good to have outside countries,” Trump said. “Look, I want to be able to get along with the world.”

    In that same interview, Trump said he supports giving H-1B visas to skilled foreign workers because the U.S. doesn’t have workers with “certain talents.”

    “You can’t take people off an unemployment line and say, ‘I’m going to put you into a factory where we’re going to make missiles,’” Trump argued.

    Trump in September imposed a $100,000 fee for H-1B visas for skilled workers, a move that led to confusion among businesses, immigration lawyers and H-1B visa holders. Before Trump’s order, the visa program had exposed a rift between the president’s supporters in the technology industry, which relies on the program, and immigration hard-liners who want to see the U.S. invest in an American workforce.

    A day after Trump expressed support for the visa program, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem added fuel to the immigration debate by saying the administration is fast-tracking immigrants’ pathway to citizenship.

    “More people are becoming naturalized under this administration than ever before,” Noem told Fox News this week.

    Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and close ally of Trump, said the administration’s position was “disappointing.”

    “How is that a good thing? We are supposed to be kicking foreigners out, not letting them stay,” Loomer said.

    Polling adds on the heat

    As polling shows Americans are growing frustrated with the economy, some conservatives increasingly blame Trump for not doing enough to create more jobs and lower the cost of living.

    Greene, the Georgia Republican, said on “The Sean Spicer Show” Thursday that Trump and his administration are “gaslighting” people when they say prices are going down.

    “It’s actually infuriating people because people know what they’re paying at the grocery store,” she said, while urging Republicans to “show we are in the trenches with them” rather than denying their experience.

    While Trump has maintained that the economy is strong, administration officials have begun talking about pushing new economic policies. White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett said this week that the administration would be working to provide consumers with more purchasing power, saying that “we’re going to fix it right away.”

    “We understand that people understand, as people look at their pocketbooks to go to the grocery store, that there’s still work to do,” Hassett said.

    The acknowledgment comes after this month’s elections in key states — in which Republicans were soundly defeated — made clear that rising prices were top of mind for many Americans. The results also showed Latino voters were turning away from the GOP amid growing concerns about the economy.

    As Republicans try to refocus on addressing affordability, Trump has continued to blame the economic problems on former President Biden.

    “Cost, and INFLATION, were higher under the Sleepy Joe Biden administration, than they are now,” Trump said in a social media post Friday. He insisted that under his administration costs are “tumbling down.”

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    Ana Ceballos

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  • Indiana businesses: ICE raids, immigration enforcement make it harder to find workers

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    FORT BRANCH — Steve Obert felt deep concern in June watching reports of ICE agents raiding a New Mexico dairy farm. Officers arrested 11 immigrant workers who, authorities say, misused documents such as counterfeit green cards.

    With half its staff gone, the farm scrambled to milk and care for the cows, threatening the survival of both the operation and the animals.


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    CARSON GERBER CNHI State Reporter

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  • Indiana businesses: ICE raids, immigration enforcement make it harder to find workers

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    FORT BRANCH — Steve Obert felt deep concern in June watching reports of ICE agents raiding a New Mexico dairy farm. Officers arrested 11 immigrant workers who, authorities say, misused documents such as counterfeit green cards.

    With half its staff gone, the farm scrambled to milk and care for the cows, threatening the survival of both the operation and the animals.


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    Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.

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    CARSON GERBER CNHI State Reporter

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  • Indiana businesses: ICE raids, immigration enforcement make it harder to find workers

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    FORT BRANCH — Steve Obert felt deep concern in June watching reports of ICE agents raiding a New Mexico dairy farm. Officers arrested 11 immigrant workers who, authorities say, misused documents such as counterfeit green cards.

    With half its staff gone, the farm scrambled to milk and care for the cows, threatening the survival of both the operation and the animals.

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    CARSON GERBER CNHI State Reporter

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  • Still grappling with pandemic changes, hospitals face uncertain future with funding cuts

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    Five years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic brought fear, anxiety and uncertainty to hospitals across the nation. Grappling with sudden financial, medical and cultural shifts, regional health care leaders found themselves stuck at the precipice of how to save lives while…

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    CHRISTY AVERY christy.avery@newsandtribune.com

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  • Still grappling with pandemic changes, hospitals face uncertain future with funding cuts

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    Five years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic brought fear, anxiety and uncertainty to hospitals across the nation. Grappling with sudden financial, medical and cultural shifts, regional health care leaders found themselves stuck at the precipice of how to save lives while…

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    CHRISTY AVERY christy.avery@newsandtribune.com

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  • Still grappling with pandemic changes, hospitals face uncertain future with funding cuts

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    Five years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic brought fear, anxiety and uncertainty to hospitals across the nation. Grappling with sudden financial, medical and cultural shifts, regional health care leaders found themselves stuck at the precipice of how to save lives while…

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    CHRISTY AVERY christy.avery@newsandtribune.com

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  • How a Work Permit Renewal Change Threatens Companies and Employees With Legal Troubles

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    Things just became even more complicated for companies employing foreign nationals, and for the people working here on specialized visas. The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday announced the end to automatic extensions of work permits that expire while their renewal applications were being processed. The change means many legal immigrants — and their employers — risk finding themselves stuck in an employment limbo if that documentation expires before it can be renewed.

    The move is only the most recent initiative in the government’s efforts to discourage or prevent foreign nationals from taking jobs that President Donald Trump says he wants to keep open for U.S. citizens. The push previously involved reducing the flow of both illegal and authorized immigration into the country, and conducting mass deportations of undocumented people. It also featured hiking the fees for H-1B visas granted to highly-educated and -skilled tech, medical, and STEM workers from a few thousand dollars to $100,000. This week’s additional change means that as of Thursday, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will no longer extend the validity of work permits whose renewal applications are being processed — often very slowly amid the huge backlog of those requests.

    The shift marks a dramatic and pointedly politically reversal of previous rules.

    Responding to the long delays in the USCIS processing work permit renewals, in May 2022 then-President Joe Biden increased the automatic extension period for those Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) from 180 days to 540 days. At that time, the Wall Street Journal reported the agency was dealing with a bottleneck of 1.5 million applications. Those included renewal requests by “87,000 immigrants whose work authorization has lapsed or is set to in the next 30 days.”

    More recently, a Bloomberg Law report on the automatic extension being ended Thursday said that as of June 30, “more than 165,000 renewals were pending for all work permit holders.”

    Because most renewal applications are made by immigrants whose work and legal status is in order, they are more often than not approved. Aware of that, Biden’s initiative sought a pragmatic workaround to the long delays processing requests that usually got the green light anyway. The longer automatic grace period let visa holders keep working at their jobs until the swamped USCIS could dig its way out of the its administrative hole.

    That approach has now emphatically come to an end.

    “USCIS is placing a renewed emphasis on robust alien screening and vetting, eliminating policies the former administration implemented that prioritized aliens’ convenience ahead of Americans’ safety and security,” said agency director Joseph Edlow in Tuesday’s announcement of the change. “It’s a commonsense measure to ensure appropriate vetting and screening has been completed before an alien’s employment authorization or documentation is extended. All aliens must remember that working in the United States is a privilege, not a right.”

    That means both those immigrant workers and the businesses employing them risk legal trouble if they continue working together once visas run out during re-processing. While there are limited exemptions to the new rule, the USCIS recommends foreign workers file their “renewal application up to 180 days before their EAD expires.”

    Some legal experts suspect that precaution won’t suffice as work permits expire as holders’ renewal requests languish in long processing queues.

    “These are individuals who have done nothing wrong on their end,” Shev Dalal-Dheini, director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told Bloomberg Law. “They’re already working, they’ve already been vetted, they’ve timely filed their paperwork. And they are being punished based on government delays.”

    Other labor law experts warn that employers of immigrant workers also risk being penalized when time runs out on working papers under renewal review.

    “This will end up having a huge impact on companies who are likely to face labor shortages as their foreign nationals will no longer be authorized to work without the automatic 540-day extension,” Shanon Stevenson, a partner at labor law firm Fisher Phillips, told human relations news site HR Dive. “Foreign nationals can apply for an EAD extension up to 180 days before expiration, but, in my experience, DHS often takes 8-12+ months to process EADs, which leaves a massive 2-6 month lapse in employment authorization.”

    In the meantime, those shorthanded companies may have a hard time finding U.S. workers to take up the slack. After all, when employers originally recruited to fill those hard, frequently low-paying jobs in construction, hospitality, healthcare, and agriculture, they often wound up hiring immigrant candidates after few Americans were interested in doing the work.

    “The crops will be rotting and won’t be harvested because no Americans want those jobs,” posted Western-Economics946 in a thread on the change on  social media platform Reddit. “How is this beneficial to anyone?”

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    Bruce Crumley

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  • Trump immigration policies would slash workforce estimate by 15.7 million and slow GDP growth by a third over the next decade, study says | Fortune

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    The U.S. immigration crackdown will cause net job losses in the millions and will lower the annual rate of economic growth by almost one-third over the next decade, a new study estimates.

    The Trump administration’s policies aimed at legal and illegal immigration would reduce the projected number of workers by 6.8 million by 2028 and 15.7 million by 2035, the National Foundation for American Policy’s study released Friday found. People entering the workforce won’t fully make up for the job losses, leading to a net reduction in the labor force by a projected 4 million workers by 2028 and 11 million in 2035. 

    “With the U.S.-born population aging and growing at a slower rate, immigrants have become an essential part of American labor force growth,” the think tank, which focuses on trade and immigration, said.

    In fact, immigrant workers were responsible for 84.7% of the labor force growth in America between 2019 and 2024, according to the report. 

    The study takes into account many of Trump’s far-reaching immigration policies for those eligible to work in the country, including reducing and suspending refugee admissions, a travel ban on 19 countries, ending Temporary Protected Status, and prohibiting international students from working on Optional Practical Training and STEM OPT after completing their coursework. The analysis does not account for a new policy that requires U.S. companies to shell out $100,000 in one-time fees for new H-1B visas.

    Labor reduction

    Trump’s immigration crackdown is already having an impact on the labor force.

    The Bureau of Labor Statistics household survey shows a decline of 1.1 million foreign-born workers since the start of the Trump administration in January through August, according to the report.

    And of the 6.8 million fewer projected workers in the U.S. labor force by 2028, 2.8 million would be due to changes in legal immigration policies, while 4 million would result from policies on illegal immigration, the study said

    At the same time, it doesn’t look as though U.S.-born workers are entering the workforce en masse as foreign-born workers exit, the report said. Instead, the labor force participation rate for U.S.-born workers aged 16 and older has ticked lower to 61.6% in August from 61.7% last year, according to the report.

    Labor economist and senior fellow at NFAP Mark Regets, said in the report it’s “wrong” to assume a decline in immigration helps U.S. workers when job growth slows.

    “Immigrants both create demand for the goods and services produced by U.S.-born workers and work alongside them in ways that increase productivity for both groups,” Regrets said. “While it is just one factor, we shouldn’t be surprised that opportunities for U.S.-born workers are falling at the same time an estimated one million fewer immigrants may be in the labor force.”

    But the White House says there’s a large pool of available U.S.-born workers.

    “Over one in ten young adults in America are neither employed, in higher education, nor pursuing some sort of vocational training.” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fortune in a statement, referencing a July 2024 CNBC article. “There is no shortage of American minds and hands to grow our labor force, and President Trump’s agenda to create jobs for American workers represents this Administration’s commitment to capitalizing on that untapped potential while delivering on our mandate to enforce our immigration laws.”

    Economic fallout

    Previous reports have warned Trumps’ immigration policies also threaten negative economic consequences.

    In September, the Congressional Budget Office projected 290,000 immigrants will be removed from the country between 2026 and 2029, which may create a labor shortage and drive up inflation.

    And according to the NFAP study, Trump’s immigration policies will lower the projected average annual economic growth rate to 1.3% from 1.8% between fiscal year 2025 to fiscal year 2035. 

    There are also ramifications for the agriculture industry and food production. The Labor Department admitted earlier this month in a filing in the Federal Register that Trump’s immigration crackdown risked a “labor shortage exacerbated by the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens.”

    That’s not the only sector feeling the talent squeeze.

    The $100,000 one-time fee for workers applying for new H-1B visas is expected to disrupt companies including Amazon, Microsoft and Meta, since they heavily recruit workers under this status. 

    And the policies are projected to have far-ranging effects on most areas of business, including a potential loss of hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers in sectors like information and educational and health services.

    In addition, individuals affected by Trump’s travel ban on 19 different countries represent a significant part of the economy, the American Immigration Council, a nonprofit research organization and advocacy group, has estimated.

    Households led by the recent arrivals from the countries earned $3.2 billion in household income, paid $715.6 million in federal, state and local taxes and held $2.5 billion in spending power, according to AIC.

    “These nationals made important contributions in U.S. industries that are facing labor shortages and rely on foreign-born workers,” like hospitality, construction, retail trade and manufacturing, the report said.

    But the White House said Trump will continue “growing our economy, creating opportunity for American workers, and ensuring all sectors have the workforce they need to be successful.”

    Nan Wu, research director at AIC told Fortune the recent NFAP study may not even fully capture the broader impact of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts. 

    “Given the unprecedented scale of these actions, it’s difficult to quantify the chilling effect they may have on immigrants who might otherwise choose to move to or remain in the United States,” Wu said. “For instance, international students—who are a critical source of high-skilled talent—may increasingly opt to pursue education or career opportunities in other countries. This shift could significantly disrupt the U.S. talent pipeline, particularly in sectors that rely heavily on STEM expertise and innovation.”

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    Nino Paoli

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  • Trump’s $100k fee on the H-1B visa was so sudden that people don’t even know how to pay it | Fortune

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    The Trump administration’s abrupt decision to slap a $100,000 fee on H-1B visas has stunned and confused employers, students and workers from the United States to India and beyond.

    Since announcing the decision Friday, the White House has tried to reassure jittery companies that the fee does not apply to existing visa holders and that their H-1B employees traveling abroad will not be stranded, unable to re-enter the United States without coming up with $100,000. The new policy took effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Sunday.

    Despite the effort at reassurance, “there’s still some folks out there recommending to their H-1B employees that they not travel right now until it’s a little clearer,” Leon Rodriguez, a partner at the Seyfarth law firm who was director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Obama administration.

    Other questions remain, some of them basic. “What actually is the process for paying this $100,000,” Rodriguez said. “Usually, when an agency is going to charge a fee, there’s a whole process. There’s the creation of forms for collecting that fee. … At this point, we don’t actually know what that process will be like.”

    “Key questions remain, such as whether the new fee will apply to universities and nonprofit research organizations, employers that Congress has exempted from the annual limit on H-1B visas,” said Bo Cooper, partner at the immigration law firm Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy.

    Here’s a look at what the H-1B visa program is and what the Trump administration is doing to it.

    What are H-1B visas and who uses them?

    Created by the 1990 Immigration Act, they are type of nonimmigrant visa, meant to allow American companies to bring in people with technical skills that are hard to find in the United States. The visas are not intended for people who want to stay permanently. Some eventually do, but only after transitioning to different immigration statuses.

    An H-1B allows employers to hire foreign workers who have specialized skills and a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent. They are good for three years and can be extended another three years, suggesting that there are now “around 700,000 H-1B visa holders in the country and another half a million or so dependents,” economist Stephen Brown of Capital Economics wrote in a commentary Monday.

    At least 60% of the H-1B visas approved since 2012 have been for computer-related jobs, according to the Pew Research Center. But hospitals, banks, universities and a wide range of other employers can and do apply for H-1B visas.

    The number of new visas issued annually is capped at 65,000, plus an additional 20,000 for people with a master’s degree or higher. Those visas are handed out by a lottery. Some employers, such as universities and nonprofits, are exempt from the limits.

    According to Pew, nearly three-quarters of those whose applications were approved in 2023 came from India.

    What did Trump do?

    The White House announced the $100,000 fee. The application fee is currently $215, plus other relatively nominal processing charges. It took effect barely 24 hours later.

    Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the fee would be applied annually, for a total of $600,000 over the maximum number of renewals allowed. The White House clarified Saturday that it was a one-time fee and said it would not apply to current visa holders.

    Trump also rolled out a $1 million “gold card” visa for wealthy individuals.

    The moves are certain to draw lawsuits charging that the president was improperly sidestepping Congress with a dramatic overhaul of the legal immigration system.

    Why target H-1B visas?

    Critics say they undercut American workers, luring people from overseas who are often willing to work for less than American tech workers do. Staffing companies such as Tata Consultancy Services often supply Indian workers to corporate clients.

    “To take advantage of artificially low labor costs incentivized by the program, companies close their IT divisions, fire their American staff, and outsource IT jobs to lower-paid foreign workers,” the White House said in its proclamation Friday.

    In a 2020 report, the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found that 60% of the H-1B positions certified by U.S. Labor Department are assigned wages below the median for the job.

    Brown at Capital Economics wrote that “it is hard to disagree with the administration’s argument that the program needs reform.”

    Giovanni Peri, director of the Global Migration Center at the University of California, Davis, said that abuses of the program — such as bringing in mid-level coders to replace higher-paid Americans — do occur but are relatively rare.

    Most H-1B visa holders, he said, really are highly skilled workers who are hard to find. “Most of these people come in, and they have helped the productivity of firms; they have helped innovation,” Peri said. “They have complemented the work of Americans, and they have allowed growth.’’

    What impact will the H-1B crackdown have?

    Brown said that many tech firms can probably afford to pay $100,000 to bring in skilled workers.

    “Nonetheless,″ he wrote, “the upfront fee will clearly be too high for many companies to stomach. Last year, the healthcare, retail and accommodation & food services sectors accounted for a quarter of H-1B visas between them, and firms in those sectors will probably find it harder to afford the fee.″

    The higher fee — along with other Trump administration attempts to curb immigration — is likely to reduce the U.S. labor supply and push wages higher, Brown said.

    Foreign workers like Alan Wu are worried – and stunned by the speed with which Trump disrupted the H-1B process. “Can you release some policy which impacts tons of people just like that?” said Wu, who is working in Indianapolis as a data scientist for a pharmaceutical company.

    He is working legally on his student visa after earning a doctorate. He’s failed to win the H-1B lottery for two consecutive years. And he’s now rethinking his plan to live permanently in the United States, where he’s lived for more than a decade. “I am definitely concerned about my job now that the cost and risk of hiring a foreigner is so high,” he said.

    Navneet Singh, who runs a consultancy “Go Global Immigration” in India’s Punjab state, said changes to H-1B visa policies are likely to significantly impact future migration to the U.S., particularly from India.

    “Trump is trying to suffocate new immigrants who are skilled, so that they won’t take the jobs away from the average American. But by doing so, they will be making (U.S.) production expensive,” Singh said.

    He said the new policy is likely to create advantages for competitors in other countries. “Countries like France, Netherlands, Germany and Canada are set to gain from this move,” he added.

    Some Indian students aspiring to pursue higher studies in the U.S. are disappointed. “It feels like a door closing,” said one aspiring student who requested anonymity.

    What businesses will be hurt the most?

    Greg Morrisett, dean and vice provost at Cornell Tech, said startups and small businesses are likely to be the most affected by the fees since there’s “no way they can” pay them. Cornell Tech, for instance, has launched about 120 startups and the “vast majority” have students coming from overseas. The result? “They’ll pick up and move to Europe or Asia, wherever they can find,” he said.

    “The big tech companies will likely move a lot of operations and things into other countries. We saw this when, for example, you know, Ireland made it really attractive from a tax perspective. All of a sudden all the headquarters move to Ireland,” Morrisett said.

    And startups, he added, “the next Amazon, the next Google will give up here and go somewhere else and then we won’t have that advantage in the next generation of tech leadership.”

    ____

    Barbara Ortutay reported from Oakland, California, and Piyush Nagpal from New Delhi, India.

    AP Writer Fu Ting contributed from Washington.

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  • One of Silicon Valley’s most prominent Democrats just called Trump’s $100k H1-B visa fee a ‘great solution’ | Fortune

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    As tech leaders across Silicon Valley blasted President Donald Trump’s new $100,000 H-1B visa fee as a threat to innovation, Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings broke ranks, calling it “a great solution.”

    In an X post on Sunday, Hastings said he has worked on H-1B politics for three decades and argued the steep cost would reserve visas for “very high-value jobs,” eliminating the lottery and giving employers more certainty.

    Hastings’ support is surprising for a few reasons. For one, as one of the biggest Democratic ‘megadonors‘ who is heavily involved with party politics, he rarely endorses any of Trump’s actions and in fact has said the President “would destroy much of what is  great about America.”

    Secondly, Hastings’ support cuts against the dominant mood in the tech industry, where most companies are alarmed about higher costs and the chilling effect on talent pipelines. Elon Musk, the on-again, off-again ally of the Trump White House, has fiercely criticized the potential changes to the program. 

    Many local tech leaders have said that the six-figure fee could deal a serious blow to innovation and competitiveness in Silicon Valley. Venture capitalist Deedy Das, a former H-1B holder and partner at Menlo Ventures, warned that the policy undercuts America’s biggest advantage: Its ability to attract global talent. 

    “If you stifle even that, it just makes it that much harder to compete on a global level,” he told CBS News. 

    Smaller startups, Das added, could see their financial “runway” shortened by months if forced to absorb the new cost, while some founders say they’ll simply stop sponsoring foreign hires altogether. 

    What the H-1B is—and what it has become

    The H-1B program was created in 1990 to allow U.S. companies to hire foreign workers in “specialty occupations” that require highly technical or professional expertise. Theoretically, it’s meant to bring rare talent – think engineers, doctors, computer scientists and specialized researchers. Each year, Congress caps the number of new visas at 85,000, a number far below demand.

    In practice, the program has evolved into something messier. Roughly 70% of visas go to Indian nationals, many not head-hunted by Silicon Valley firms but by outsourcing giants like Infosys, Wipro, and Tata Consultancy Services, many of whom work for some part of the IT sector. Those companies contract out employees to U.S. clients, leading critics—including President Donald Trump—to accuse them of undercutting American workers with lower-wage labor. 

    Defenders argue the U.S. economy desperately needs these skills and that the visa holders often fill jobs that would otherwise go vacant. 

    Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and a one-time staunch supporter of Trump, famously had a Christmas-time bout with the MAGA base over his support for H-1B visas.

    “There is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America,” Musk posted on X. “If you force the world’s best talent to play for the other side, America will LOSE.”

    He has said that he, like “many Americans,” is himself here due to the visa. 

    Confusion, then clarification

    Against that backdrop, Trump’s Friday proclamation requiring a $100,000 payment for each new petition sent shockwaves through the tech sector.

    Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick initially said the fee might be annual, fueling panic among employers. By Saturday, the White House clarified: it’s only a one-time payment applied to new petitions in future lotteries, not renewals or re-entries by existing visa holders. 

    “This is NOT an annual fee,” spokesperson Karoline Leavitt wrote on X.

    The clarification calmed some immediate fears, but not the broader unease. Many employers rushed to get their H-1b holders tickets to fly into the U.S. before the fee was enacted. Indian biotech professional Shubra Singh told CNBC that her Saturday dinner in Pittsburgh with H-1B friends was derailed by anxious news alerts that left many rushing to change travel plans.

    Economic whiplash in India

    The financial reverberations were immediate. Shares of major Indian IT outsourcing firms—including Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, and Tata Consultancy Services—fell between 1.7% and 4.2% on Indian stock exchanges during Monday trading.

    Citi Research said in a note that the fee could shave about 100 basis points from margins and cut earnings per share across the IT sector by roughly 6% if companies continue staffing through H-1Bs. Analysts, including JP Morgan’s Toshi Jain, also predict fewer Indian students may choose U.S. universities if the post-graduation visa route now carries a six-figure price tag.

    Yet some see opportunity. Accel partner Prashanth Prakash said the disruption could redirect top graduates toward India’s startup ecosystem.

    “If Indian talent no longer heads to the U.S., it could be a boon for local entrepreneurship,” he argued.

    SquadStack CEO Apurv Agrawal told the Economic Times of India the H-1B fee turmoil is pushing Indian professionals to see India itself—not the U.S.—as the ultimate destination for world-class talent.

    “With the kind of AI-first companies and global-scale opportunities being built here today, we have a once-in-a-generation chance to retain and welcome back world-class talent,” Agrawal said.

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  • Trump’s $100,000 visa targets a $280 billion India success story | Fortune Asia

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    Donald Trump’s move to curtail H-1B visas threatens to rewrite the rules for one of India’s biggest business success stories, a decades-old model that’s grown into a $280 billion industry and underpins much of the technology behind the world’s largest corporations.

    The U.S. president’s order on Friday—which requires a $100,000 fee for H-1B applications—will force a rethink at Indian outsourcers led by Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. and Infosys Ltd., who use the program to deploy tens of thousands of engineers across American clients from Citigroup Inc. to Walmart Inc. The two Indian software exporters’ shares slid more than 3% on Monday.

    The abrupt move—a response in part to accusations of abuse—forces Prime Minister Narendra Modi to once again deal with the fallout from America First policies. Companies from TCS to Wipro Ltd. have been hailed as a touchstone of Indian technological achievement, helping create high-skilled jobs for the world’s most populous economy since the idea of outsourced information technology gained currency around the 1990s. Trump deals a blow to some of India’s most valuable companies at a time they’re grappling with IT cutbacks because of geopolitical and economic uncertainty.

    Trump’s move is a “geopolitical turf war,” said Chander Prakash Gurnani, the former chief executive officer of Tech Mahindra Ltd., who now runs an AI firm. “We’re only helping America. And we’re helping American companies be more competitive.”

    “In the short run, the next 12 months, there is a shock,” he told Bloomberg Television, emphasizing however that TCS and its rivals have in some ways anticipated a longer-term shift away from the U.S. “The business model, and the global delivery model, are changing and we live in a very dynamic world.”

    The changes to the visa policy increased strains on the India-U.S. relationship on the eve of the Indian team’s visit to Washington as the countries seek a breakthrough on trade talks. They also add to a wave of anti-immigration movements across the globe that have impacted the nation of 1.4 billion people.

    In India, social media erupted with responses that ran the gamut from outraged to panicked and accusatory. Many worried about the impact on families who rely on H-1Bs to work and stay in the U.S. as well as their relatives in India who they often send money to.

    The H-1B visa program is used heavily by Indian outsourcing firms as well as the U.S. tech sector to bring in skilled workers from abroad. Finance companies and consulting firms also use the program, which makes tens of thousands of visas available via a lottery. The Trump administration cast the changes as part of a broader plan to bolster legitimate applications while weeding out abuses.

    H-1B visas are awarded based on a system where employers file petitions by March for a lottery in April, with 65,000 visas available plus 20,000 for U.S. master’s graduates. In 2025, over 470,000 applications were submitted. Many firms submit multiple registrations for the same workers to improve their odds at the lottery, a Bloomberg News investigation previously found.

    The new $100,000 payment would be in addition to current fees, which are more modest. Fees directly tied to the H-1B visa application currently include a $215 fee to register for the lottery alongside various filing fees.

    Indian-born workers accounted for 72.3% of all H-1B beneficiaries in the U.S. fiscal year to September 2023, which includes initial and continuing employment. Infosys got approval for initial employment of 2,504 H-1B visas in FY2024. Under the new rules, that would cost at least $250 million.

    As recently as July, Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal had said immigration rules—including those around H-1B visas—had not come up in U.S. trade talks. Opposition lawmakers were quick to blame Modi for Trump’s decision on the H-1B fee hike, saying the government has failed once again to protect Indian interests.

    In a televised address to the nation Sunday, Modi spoke about a reduction in consumption taxes, but didn’t make mention of the visa changes. India’s foreign ministry on Saturday said the local tech industry and the U.S. are expected to consult on the path forward.

    While Trump aims to protect U.S. jobs by restricting immigrant inflows, the new rules could backfire: they will likely raise costs for American corporations and push them to step up the expansion of their so-called global capability centers in India. Companies including Microsoft Corp., Google, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley already run large GCCs in India.

    “If American companies cannot outsource onshore, they may look to expand their offshore presence in places like India, even with a possible fee hit,” said Bhaskar Rao, CEO of communications company Digital Sea. “The decision is clearly targeted to keep Trump voters happy, but it remains to be seen whether they can replace nearly 65,000–85,000 junior and mid-level professionals affected by the H-1B cap.”

    The order, which took effect Sunday, is already drawing criticism for flouting clear requirements of U.S. federal immigration law and is likely to invite immediate lawsuits. The lack of clarity around the new rules prompted Microsoft, Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.—some of the biggest beneficiaries of the H-1B program—to initially warn employees against foreign travel. 

    “The main issue with such decisions is that they create a lot of uncertainty in the business environment,” said Arup Raha, a Singapore-based independent economist. “Such a supply-side shock” isn’t in U.S. interests either, he said.

    Indian firms such as TCS, Infosys and HCL Tech Ltd. have steadily pared back their dependence on H-1B visas since Trump threatened to raise immigration barriers in his first term and a bulk of projects was done remotely at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. All major IT companies have also stepped up local hiring and ramped up so-called delivery centers in the U.S. to service clients.

    Still, the H-1B remains critical to Indian IT firms— t helps maintain key client relationships in their biggest market, and allows engineers to be stationed on the ground for sensitive projects in the U.S. The increased visa costs will force them to fly even fewer workers to client sites. Infosys employs thousands of people across its delivery centers in states including Texas, Indiana, and North Carolina.

    “The move will almost certainly be challenged in court, and there will be considerable pressure from the tech industry to reverse it,” Digital Sea’s Rao said. “Nothing is final with Trump.”

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  • White House scrambles to clear up H-1B visa confusion after panic throws corporate America into chaos overnight | Fortune

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    President Donald Trump’s $100,000 fee for H-1B visas sowed mass confusion and panic among top U.S. companies overnight, forcing the White House to clarify the requirements.

    On Saturday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt took to X to explain which visa holders the fee applies to and when.

    “This is NOT an annual fee,” she said. “It’s a one-time fee that applies only to the petition.”

    Leavitt added that existing H-1B holders currently outside the U.S. will not be charged $100,000 to come back, and that they can continue to leave and re-enter as they do right now.

    Trump’s new H-1B policy also applies only to new visas, not renewals for current holders, she explained, noting that it will take effect in the next lottery cycle.

    On Friday, Trump signed a proclamation that imposes a $100,000 fee for H-1B visas and announced a $1 million “gold card” visa that can serve as a pathway for wealthy investors to gain U.S. citizenship.

    At the time, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested the fee, which kicks in at 12:01 a.m. ET on Sunday, would be annual.

    When asked if the policy applies to existing holders, he replied that companies with H-1B employees must ask “Is the person valuable enough to have a $100,000 a year payment to the government? Or they should head home and go hire an American?” 

    That caused U.S. tech giants, which rely heavily on H-1Bs, to warn employees with those visas against foreign travel.

    Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and others told affected employees to return to the U.S. on Saturday and cancel any plans to leave the U.S.

    “While we don’t have all the answers right now, we ask that you prioritize the recommendations above,” a message from Microsoft said, according to Bloomberg.

    Top banks JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs sent similar messages to employees on H-1B visas, according to the Financial Times.

    H-1B visas had previously been a divisive issue in Trump’s circle. Late last year, before falling out with the president, Elon Musk called for more highly skilled workers as did and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. But MAGA hardliners have demanded that U.S. companies hire more American workers.

     In a reply to a post taunting him about H-1Bs, the South African-born Musk hit back sharply.

    “The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla, and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B,” he wrote in December. “Take a big step back and F–K YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.”

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  • Tech companies warn H-1B visa holders to avoid foreign travel | Fortune

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    The tech sector and other companies rushed to warn employees with H-1B visas against foreign travel as they responded to the chaos created by President Donald Trump’s move to slap a $100,000 application fee on the widely used program.

    Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and other tech companies sent messages to affected employees telling them to return to the US on Saturday and cancel any plans to depart the country after the White House said Friday that the new rules would go into effect on Sunday.

    A White House official clarified Saturday that the fee only affects new visas — not renewals or current visa holders — and will be applied in the upcoming lottery cycle. 

    Later Saturday afternoon, a White House account on X posted a message saying that Trump’s announcement doesn’t apply to current visa holders. It added, “The Proclamation does not impact the ability of any current visa holder to travel to/from the U.S.”

    Even so, the uncertainties surrounding how the change will be applied and enforced caused confusion and consternation across corporate America and is prompting companies and immigration lawyers to urge current visa holders to be careful. 

    Microsoft told its employees that it understands “these developments are creating uncertainty for many of you.” It added, “While we don’t have all the answers right now, we ask that you prioritize the recommendations above.”

    Several visa holders said the changes are disruptive and upsetting. Lawrence, 34, was set to move from the UK to the Bay Area on Monday to start his new job in engineering. By the time the executive order was signed, he had everything packed, he had sold his car, put his house for rent and said goodbye to all of his loved ones in the UK.

    Lawrence, who doesn’t want to include his last name and company name for fear of retaliation, was advised by his company’s immigration lawyers to stay put in the UK until they have more information.

    One Google employee who asked for anonymity described canceling a trip to Tokyo to visit family because of the White House announcement. 

    Amazon also warned holders of H-4 dependent visas, which are for spouses and dependents of H-1B visas, to remain in the US.

    The H-1B visa program is used heavily by the tech sector, which uses the visa program to bring in skilled workers from abroad. Finance companies and consulting firms also use the program. 

    Companies with the greatest number of H1-B visas are Amazon, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Microsoft, Meta Platforms Inc. and Apple Inc., according to the US government. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Walmart Inc. rank 8th and 9th, according to US government data.

    Each year, employers file petitions by March for a lottery in April, with 65,000 visas available plus 20,000 for US master’s graduates. In 2025, over 470,000 applications were submitted, and approved workers can start Oct. 1.

    Ernst & Young LLP told its visa holders to return Saturday to the US. “Our continued guidance is to limit international travel where possible regardless of visa type,” the email said, noting that further changes and travel restrictions are possible. The companies declined to comment or didn’t respond to requests for comment on their visa advice.

    Walmart issued similar guidance in a memo to employees, adding it was continuing to “interpret recent changes to H-1B visa policy” and sharing guidance “out of an abundance of caution.” The company wrote that “until the situation and intention of the executive order was clear,” it recommended that employees holding the visas not depart the US.

    Read More: Why Trump Wants to Charge $100,000 for H-1B Visas

    Rakhel Milstein, an immigration lawyer who founded Milstein Law Group, said she expects “complete chaos” after spending all night on calls with visa holders at tech firms, non-profit groups and other companies. 

    “We have clients who have just gotten their visa stamps at the consulates in India, and now they’re going to get their passport back on Monday,” she said. “Does this mean they can’t come back?”

    Milstein said she expects that the new policy will be challenged immediately in court and that a swift injunction is likely. 

    Current H-1B visa holders said they’re deeply unsettled by the changes to the program. 

    Erika L., who is from an Asian country and works in finance in the greater New York City area, asked for anonymity to discuss the announcement.

    “I feel like at this moment I’m kind of a little bit lost and not sure about how this policy will apply to people who already got their visa,” she said. “If it doesn’t work out, I was just telling my friends, it’s okay, I may just move to Europe, move to Asia for work. I have already lived here for almost 10 years, so I think it’s really hard to just suddenly ask me to leave this country because I am not mentally prepared to leave everything that I have known for 10 years.”

    The Trump administration cast the changes as part of a broader plan to bolster legitimate applications while weeding out abuses. But companies are quietly worried that the $100,000 price tag will prove unsustainable for their hiring needs.

    Read More: New $100,000 H-1B Fee Only for New Applicants, US Official Says

    In speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump brushed off a question about whether technology company executives would be concerned with the action.

    “I think they’re going to be very happy. Everyone’s going to be happy. And we’re going to be able to keep people in our country that are going to be very productive people,” Trump said. “And in many cases these companies are going to pay a lot of money for that and they’re very happy about it.”

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  • Trump hits H-1B visas with $100,000 fee, targeting the program that launched Elon Musk and Instagram | TechCrunch

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    President Trump just made it a lot more expensive for companies to hire foreign workers through the H-1B program. The White House announced Friday that Trump signed a proclamation requiring employers to pay a hefty $100,000 fee for new H-1B visa applications, an enormous jump from the current $215 lottery registration fee.

    H-1B visas allow U.S. companies to hire foreign workers in fields that typically require technical expertise like IT, engineering, mathematics, or medicine. The program is capped at 65,000 new visas annually, plus an additional 20,000 for foreign graduates with advanced degrees from U.S. universities. The visas are awarded through a lottery system and typically last three years, though holders can extend them or apply for green cards.

    The administration’s new move is designed to crack down on what it calls widespread abuse of the program, which it blames for displacing American workers. According to the White House, the share of IT workers with H-1B visas has skyrocketed from 32% in 2003 to over 65% today, while unemployment among recent computer science graduates has hit 6.1%.

    Silicon Valley will undoubtedly be up in arms over the initiative. The restrictions take aim at a program that helped create some of the region’s biggest success stories.

    Elon Musk, Trump’s close ally for most of this year, initially worked in the U.S. on an H-1B after arriving as a student. In fact, Musk, taking issue with a perceived critic of the H-1B program in December on his platform X, tweeted to the individual that, “The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B. Take a big step back and F*** YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.”

    Mike Krieger, the Instagram co-founder turned Chief Product Officer at AI giant Anthropic, is one of those aforementioned success stories. The Brazilian-born Stanford grad worked at the early instant messaging platform Meebo on an H-1B visa.

    Earlier this year, the National Venture Capital Association argued in a letter to the National Science Foundation that, “Raising the annual cap of H-1B visas issued each year to educated and highly skilled immigrants who work in jobs that require a substantial amount of technical and specialized training is fundamental to generating more successful immigrant-founded companies.”

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    The NVCA noted that while “H-1B visas are not ideal for immigrants who want to immediately found companies in the U.S., they are still critically important for the success of immigrant founded companies because they provide valuable work experience and widen the pipeline of potential immigrant startup founders.” (The H-1B’s employer-employee requirement makes it practically impossible for founders to obtain directly, forcing them to spend years tied to employers before getting green cards that let them launch their own startups. When Krieger wanted to co-found Instagram in 2010, transferring his visa took months, and he has said he almost abandoned the startup before it launched due to those complications.)

    On Friday, tech leaders on X were already warning about talent fleeing to more welcoming countries. And Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have reportedly told employees with H-1B visas to avoid foreign travel and remain in the United states for now.

    In the meantime, in its proclamation on Friday, the Trump administration went full bore on its criticism of the program, pointing to specific companies that approved thousands of H-1B workers while simultaneously laying off American employees. According to the White House fact sheet, one unnamed company received approval for 5,189 H-1B workers this fiscal year while cutting roughly 16,000 U.S. jobs.

    The proclamation — which says it is partly rooted in an effort to “protect our national security” — includes wiggle room; case-by-case exemptions are possible if deemed in the national interest.

    It also directs the Labor Secretary to revise wage requirements to prevent undercutting American salaries.

    This post has been updated to include reports on how Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are responding.

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    Connie Loizos

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  • ‘This country would collapse’: Michio Kaku confirms Trump’s H-1B plan is America’s final bankruptcy, because all he touches dies | The Mary Sue

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    Donald Trump‘s latest genius idea for “Making America Great Again” is to chase out the very brains that keep the country running. Remember Michio Kaku’s warning? It just came true.

    On Friday, the Labor Department quietly announced that the cost for employers to hire an H-1B worker would skyrocket from $1,000 to an impossible $100,000. At this point, every fresh stroke of Trump’s pen looks less like policy and more like vandalism, dragging the U.S. not into the future but straight back into the Dark Ages. But the MAGA strongman is forgetting that his newest target is actually the backbone of Silicon Valley and America’s tech dominance.

    The well-known American theoretical physicist, Michio Kaku, once called the H-1B visa “America’s secret weapon.” Now, as Donald Trump tries to gut that very weapon, his justification is the same tired MAGA talking point: that it will free up jobs for Americans. The problem? Kaku dismantled that fantasy years ago. “There are no Americans who can take these jobs,” he said flatly. In a resurfaced video from almost 15 years ago, Kaku goes point by point, explaining why “the scientific establishment of this country would collapse” without the H-1B.

    “Forget about Google, forget about Silicon Valley. There would be no Silicon Valley without the H-1B. You know what the H-1B is? It’s the genius visa. You realise that in the United States, 50% of all PhD candidates are foreign-born?… the United States is a magnet sucking up all of the brains of the world.”

    Trump hasn’t outright killed the program, but by slapping a staggering $100,000 price tag on every H-1B visa, up from just $1,000, he’s basically plastered a “closed for business” sign across the U.S. economy. Tech giants might manage to absorb the hit, but the real death blow will land on small businesses and startups. These companies depend on specialized talent to compete and innovate, and for them, this hike is a death sentence.

    Kaku’s warning reads like a prophecy: “You remove the H-1B visa, and you collapse the economy.” He even pointed to a Wall Street Journal editorial that shredded the same line of reasoning Trump is now pushing. Back then, congressmen were pushing to ban the H-1Bs, claiming they “took jobs away” from Americans. Here’s the Wall Street Journal’s blunt reply that Trump needs to read now:

    “The Wall Street Journal editorialised against a congressman who wanted to ban the H-1B, saying they’ll take jobs away from the American people. The Wall Street Journal said: Look, there are no Americans who can take these jobs. These are at the highest level of high technology. They don’t take away jobs from Americans; they create entire industries.”

    The irony is that Trump has packaged this as a patriotic defense of American jobs, when in reality it is very much a death sentence for small businesses and startups, and an undercover act of discrimination against the very foreign workers who built the foundations of America’s rise.

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    Kopal

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    Kopal primarily covers politics for The Mary Sue. Off the clock, she switches to DND mode and escapes to the mountains.

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  • Here’s how Trump is changing the H-1B visa program

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    Here’s how Trump is changing the H-1B visa program

    The Trump administration is overhauling a visa program intended for high-skilled workers by hiking the application fee to $100,000 annually.

    Updated: 5:11 AM PDT Sep 20, 2025

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    President Donald Trump is overhauling a visa program intended for high-skilled workers by hiking the application fee to $100,000 annually from $215. It’s the latest step from the Trump administration aimed at limiting legal immigration. The move could shake up hiring strategies in major industries like technology, finance, health care and higher education. The H-1B visa program aims to bring in foreign workers for high-skilled, hard-to-fill jobs. Historically, these visas have been awarded through a lottery system. Opponents argue that businesses are abusing the program to pay overseas workers lower wages. At a press conference on Friday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the steeper application fee will incentivize companies to hire Americans instead. He predicted program usage will ultimately fall below the current 85,000 annual cap as a result. “Train Americans. Stop bringing in people to take our jobs,” Lutnick said. This year, top recipients of H-1B visas included Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and Google.In the past, debates over the future of the program have divided members of Trump’s coalition. Some have called for lower caps or eliminating H-1B visas entirely. Big Tech allies, like billionaire Elon Musk (a former H-1B recipient), contend the program plays a critical role in keeping American businesses competitive by attracting top talent from around the world.”The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low,” Musk posted in December during a social media spat on this topic. “Think of this like a pro sports team: if you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be. That enables the whole TEAM to win.” Also on Friday, Trump rolled out a new visa pathway that he’s calling the “Trump Gold Card.” It allows vetted individuals to pay $1 million in exchange for an expedited process and a pathway to lawful permanent resident status, according to the program’s website. Corporations sponsoring individuals would have to pay $2 million. “It’s going to raise billions of dollars, billions and billions of dollars, which is going to reduce taxes, pay off debt, and other good things,” Trump said. Critics argue that Trump can’t take these steps without approval from Congress. The plan is expected to face legal challenges.

    WASHINGTON —

    President Donald Trump is overhauling a visa program intended for high-skilled workers by hiking the application fee to $100,000 annually from $215.

    It’s the latest step from the Trump administration aimed at limiting legal immigration. The move could shake up hiring strategies in major industries like technology, finance, health care and higher education.

    The H-1B visa program aims to bring in foreign workers for high-skilled, hard-to-fill jobs. Historically, these visas have been awarded through a lottery system.

    Opponents argue that businesses are abusing the program to pay overseas workers lower wages. At a press conference on Friday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the steeper application fee will incentivize companies to hire Americans instead. He predicted program usage will ultimately fall below the current 85,000 annual cap as a result.

    “Train Americans. Stop bringing in people to take our jobs,” Lutnick said.

    This year, top recipients of H-1B visas included Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and Google.

    In the past, debates over the future of the program have divided members of Trump’s coalition. Some have called for lower caps or eliminating H-1B visas entirely. Big Tech allies, like billionaire Elon Musk (a former H-1B recipient), contend the program plays a critical role in keeping American businesses competitive by attracting top talent from around the world.

    “The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low,” Musk posted in December during a social media spat on this topic. “Think of this like a pro sports team: if you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be. That enables the whole TEAM to win.”

    Also on Friday, Trump rolled out a new visa pathway that he’s calling the “Trump Gold Card.” It allows vetted individuals to pay $1 million in exchange for an expedited process and a pathway to lawful permanent resident status, according to the program’s website. Corporations sponsoring individuals would have to pay $2 million.

    “It’s going to raise billions of dollars, billions and billions of dollars, which is going to reduce taxes, pay off debt, and other good things,” Trump said.

    Critics argue that Trump can’t take these steps without approval from Congress. The plan is expected to face legal challenges.

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  • Trump hits H-1B visas with $100,000 fee, targeting the program that launched Elon Musk and Instagram | TechCrunch

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    President Trump just made it a lot more expensive for companies to hire foreign workers through the H-1B program. The White House announced Friday that Trump signed a proclamation requiring employers to pay a hefty $100,000 fee for new H-1B visa applications, an enormous jump from the current $215 lottery registration fee.

    H-1B visas allow U.S. companies to hire foreign workers in fields that typically require technical expertise like IT, engineering, mathematics, or medicine. The program is capped at 65,000 new visas annually, plus an additional 20,000 for foreign graduates with advanced degrees from U.S. universities. The visas are awarded through a lottery system and typically last three years, though holders can extend them or apply for green cards.

    The administration’s new move is designed to crack down on what it calls widespread abuse of the program, which it blames for displacing American workers. According to the White House, the share of IT workers with H-1B visas has skyrocketed from 32% in 2003 to over 65% today, while unemployment among recent computer science graduates has hit 6.1%.

    Silicon Valley will undoubtedly be up in arms over the initiative. The restrictions take aim at a program that helped create some of the region’s biggest success stories.

    Elon Musk, Trump’s close ally for most of this year, initially worked in the U.S. on an H-1B after arriving as a student. In fact, Musk, taking issue with a perceived critic of the H-1B program in December on his platform X, tweeted to the individual that, “The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B. Take a big step back and F*** YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.”

    Mike Krieger, the Instagram co-founder turned Chief Product Officer at AI giant Anthropic, is one of those aforementioned success stories. The Brazilian-born Stanford grad worked at the early instant messaging platform Meebo on an H-1B visa.

    Earlier this year, the National Venture Capital Association argued in a letter to the National Science Foundation that, “Raising the annual cap of H-1B visas issued each year to educated and highly skilled immigrants who work in jobs that require a substantial amount of technical and specialized training is fundamental to generating more successful immigrant-founded companies.”

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    The NVCA noted that while “H-1B visas are not ideal for immigrants who want to immediately found companies in the U.S., they are still critically important for the success of immigrant founded companies because they provide valuable work experience and widen the pipeline of potential immigrant startup founders.” (The H-1B’s employer-employee requirement makes it practically impossible for founders to obtain directly, forcing them to spend years tied to employers before getting green cards that let them launch their own startups. When Krieger wanted to co-found Instagram in 2010, transferring his visa took months, and he has said he almost abandoned the startup before it launched due to those complications.)

    On Friday, tech leaders on X were already warning about talent fleeing to more welcoming countries.

    In the meantime, in its proclamation on Friday, the Trump administration went full bore on its criticism of the program, pointing to specific companies that approved thousands of H-1B workers while simultaneously laying off American employees. According to the White House fact sheet, one unnamed company received approval for 5,189 H-1B workers this fiscal year while cutting roughly 16,000 U.S. jobs.

    The proclamation — which says it is partly rooted in an effort to “protect our national security” — includes wiggle room; case-by-case exemptions are possible if deemed in the national interest.

    It also directs the Labor Secretary to revise wage requirements to prevent undercutting American salaries.

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  • Capping H-1B visas at 85,000 could cripple U.S. growth in tech like AI, an expert says: ‘We are actively shooting our future selves in the foot’

    Capping H-1B visas at 85,000 could cripple U.S. growth in tech like AI, an expert says: ‘We are actively shooting our future selves in the foot’

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    As the annual H-1B lottery opens Wednesday, the program’s annual cap of 85,000 visas is once again under scrutiny, with some experts and business leaders calling it a threat to U.S. innovation.

    An H-1B visa is reserved for foreign workers in specialty fields who have a job offer from a U.S. employer. Though the visa holders can work in any field, they’re especially prevalent in tech and other STEM jobs, including AI. Top companies including Amazon, Meta, and Salesforce have sponsored tens of thousands of H-1B workers over the past few years alone.

    The visas have become a talking point among anti-immigration conservatives. Donald Trump controversially suspended the program temporarily while in office, while presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy said he would “gut” the program and create an “actual meritocratic admission.” Other critics say recipients take away jobs from Americans.

    But tech leaders, many of whom spoke out against Trump’s visa freeze, say the U.S. actually has the opposite problem: Rather than restricting the H-1B program, it should be expanded. Currently, 65,000 visas—a figure that hasn’t changed in more than two decades—can be awarded each year via a lottery, while another 20,000 can go to those who earn a graduate degree in the U.S.

    Demand is overwhelming supply: In 2023, hundreds of thousands of applicants were denied. That hurts those workers, of course, but also companies, says Allison Ahern Fillo, a Boston-based immigration attorney. Some companies she represents are forced to apply for a visa for the same job candidate multiple years in a row.

    “It’s really unfortunate that a U.S. employer wants to be able to employ someone and it’s really up to chance,” Fillo tells Fortune. “They vetted the person, they’re the right person for the job.”

    Aaron Levie, CEO of cloud company Box, recently wrote on X that the discrepancy between demand and the number of visas granted should “make you go insane.”

    “We are actively shooting our future selves in the foot,” he wrote. Levie did not respond to Fortune‘s request for an interview.

    Research has found that hiring these migrant workers doesn’t adversely affect the economy, as some allege, but rather leads to further job creation and economic growth for myriad reasons: These workers drive innovation, pay U.S. taxes, start new businesses, and so on.

    Restricting immigration ultimately harms companies and slows wage growth. Research by Britta Glennon, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, finds that when companies cannot fill the roles with U.S. workers and are unable to hire high-skilled foreigners, they actually offshore more jobs.

    “Microsoft has found that for every H-1B hire we make, we add on average four additional employees to support them in various capacities,” Bill Gates told members of Congress back in 2008.

    Advocates of increasing the cap on visas also note that it’s not just the tech sector that would benefit: There’s plenty of demand in fields like medicine and scientific research where there simply aren’t enough American candidates.

    What makes increasing the cap even more crucial, Fillo says, is that the H-1B visa is one of the only ways for educated foreigners to work in the U.S. at all—and eventually become residents or citizens.

    “When we can’t hire and retain the top non-native talent, we hand global competitors what used to be America’s greatest edge,” Ben Zweig, a labor economist and the CEO of Revelio Labs, previously wrote for Fortune. “Solving this issue will help firms get the talent they need, help our cities grow, and create a more efficient and fairer workforce.”

    Recent changes to visas

    The Biden administration has made a few changes to the program in the past year unrelated to raising the cap, including allowing some applicants to renew their visas in the U.S., rather than requiring them to travel to their home country and renew it in a U.S. consulate.

    U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services also made changes to the annual lottery. In recent years, USCIS found that the same applicant was being submitted by multiple companies in order to game the system and increase their chances of being selected. This year, an individual can only enter once.

    Additionally, the Biden administration has proposed a change that would require an applicant’s job to be “directly related” to their studies, and to the needs of any given job. Immigration experts say that could make things more difficult for visa holders who don’t necessarily end up with a job in a field related to what they studied. They are also proposing allowing entrepreneurs to sponsor themselves.

    And of course, there are other objections to the program. Some critics have accused employers of exploiting the program, and using it to hire foreign workers while firing U.S. employees. Others worry the foreign workers themselves are the ones being exploited, and that the process is overly onerous on workers and businesses alike.

    Learn how to take control of your personal finances with Get Your Due, our six-week email bootcamp. Sign up for free.

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    Alicia Adamczyk

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