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Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

reuters.com

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Re: Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

#581

Post by stephen_cagle »

This straight 100k to the top is not a good way to implement this. It should be a percentage (say 50%, we can talk about what the number should actually be) of the total compensation that is being paid to the H1B. We should also just completely remove caps on H1B.

This allows companies that truly want extraordinary talent to pay a premium to acquire it with no red tape . It also makes it far less likely that they can significantly underpay foreign workers to work in the united states and undercut American employees (at a 50% surcharge, you would have to pay 2/3 the prevailing salary to break even (assuming all employees are the same)).

The 50% number is something I made up, I think we can have an honest discussion about what that number should realistically be (and it should probably be different for different industries). But my main point is it should simply be a percentage tax paid on top of all compensation for foreign employees. This is the correct way to balance domestic companies undercutting domestic labor, while allowing them to access genuinely extraordinary talent with no impedance.

Re: Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

#584

Post by wonderwonder »

k33n wrote: post #549
LPisGood wrote: post #513

I think this is an upfront cost, not an annual cost.

It is an annual cost. This will dramatically shake up the US tech industry. I expect to see engineering budgets increase, and less Americans struggling to get interviews and ultimately jobs at companies HQ'ed here. The originally stated purpose of the H1-B program was to import top-tier elite talent but anyone who watched it evolve saw that it became terribly exploitative. I've watched as companies that I've worked f…

My hope is that this unleashes American tech workers and the US market again. There is almost no reason to apply for H1B anymore except for the original purpose of hiring workers with very unique skill sets that cannot be found in the US. This could be the most monumental thing this Admin does for tech workers as long as there is not some monkey paw aspect to this

Re: Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

#586

Post by archeantus »

If you want a good job in tech, go look at Walmart’s job board in the coming weeks. They literally have thousands of Indians doing all kinds of jobs that could easily be done by Americans. I liked my time there, and there’s lots of great people, but it felt very clear that the system was being abused.

Re: Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

#587

Post by justinator »

LPisGood wrote: post #542
rideontime wrote: post #525

Bit ridiculous that this article leaves as a footnote that this rule change is illegal and likely to be struck down by the first lawsuit.

I think it is kind of a footnote. Many things this administration has done are illegal and struck down by the first lawsuit but later let stand by a friendly Supreme Court.

And should be added, let stand by the Supreme Court without given a reasoning on why it stands. Just all shadow dockets.

Corruption by another name. The canary is already dead.

Re: Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

#588

Post by jghn »

tenpies wrote: post #556

The Executive Order has now been published: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/rest... If you don't want to read the pre-amble, you can skip straight to the second "Accordingly" to see the details.

People seem to be missing the part where DHS reserves the right to allow exceptions for any company they desire. Now they have another way to play favorites.

Re: Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

#589

Post by wonderwonder »

softwaredoug wrote: post #561
bhouston wrote: post #531

This is actually smart. Many H1B visas are used to undermine fair labor wages for already local talent. We should ensure that H1B visas are for actual unique talent and not just to undercut local wages. H1B is ripe with abuse - this article by Bloomberg says that half of all H1-B visas are used by Indian staffing firms that pay significantly lower than the US laborers they are replacing: - https://www.bloomberg.com/g…

OTOH many H1Bs come with the intent of moving to the US and permanent residence eventually. Which makes our workforce stronger.

Unless you are an American tech worker looking for a job

Re: Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

#590

Post by lisbbb »

happytoexplain wrote: post #295
myrmidon wrote: post #273

One thing that really pisses me off about the whole populist anti-immigration stance is how thankless, hypocritical and selfish the whole thing is: People want to avoid negative effects from immigration (cultural/language/crimerate)- fine. But are those people acknowledging how much economical growth was driven by migrant labor over the last half century? Hell no. Would the average alt-righter be willing to sacrifice…

This is an oversimplification and a pretty extreme case of over-categorizing people into groups. People who have problems with immigration aren't automatically alt-right. People who have problems with immigration understand that immigration has also historically provided economic growth - those aren't mutually exclusive things.

I never had a big problem with immigration until it ate literally everything in sight!
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