Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

741–750 of 1001 posts

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

#741

Post by kappi »

As authorized by federal law, the department will conduct investigations of employers through Project Firewall to maximize H-1B program compliance. To achieve this goal, the Secretary of Labor will personally certify the initiation of investigations for the first time in the department’s history. This historic action leverages existing authority granted to the Secretary if reasonable cause exists that an H-1B employer not in compliance.

Secretary-certified investigations, as well as other H-1B-related investigations, are important tools the department will use in Project Firewall to hold employers accountable and protect the rights of American workers. Violations may result in the collection of back wages owed to affected workers, the assessment of civil money penalties, and/or debarment from future use of the H-1B program for a prescribed period of time.

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

#742

Post by [deleted] »

roughly wrote: post #85

I think there’s plenty of interesting debates to be had about immigration policy and its effects on the labor market, but one thing worth noting here is that the primary problem that damn near every other country on earth has isn’t immigration, it’s brain drain. A core strategic strength of the US over the last century has been that everyone with any talent wants to come here to work, and by and large we’ve let them…

[deleted]

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

#743

Post by idiotsecant »

None of us are talking about the important part of this - this new fee can be waived at will by the Secretary of homeland security entirely at their discretion. This isn't about H1b at all, it's about punishing political enemies and rewarding allies. It's one more little toehold of the mafia state.

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

#744

Post by nomilk »

US-based companies that depend on H-1Bs may:

- stomach the cost increase,

- reduce the number of H-1Bs they hire,

- move (the company) out of the US (i.e. to less imposing jurisdictions).

If companies choose the latter, the irony is the resulting reduction in US tax revenue from companies moving out could outweigh the gains in revenue from the $100k H-1B tax, thus resulting in lower US government tax revenues due to the change.

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

#745

Post by nickpsecurity »

" Summary Companies

    Visas are used principally by tech sector
    Over 70% of beneficiaries of H-1B visas enter US from India
    Latest move in Trump's broader immigration crackdown
SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON, Sept 19 (Reuters) - The Trump administration said on Friday it would ask companies to pay $100,000 per year for H-1B worker visas, potentially dealing a big blow to the technology sector that relies heavily on skilled workers from India and China. Since taking office in January, Trump has kicked off a wide-ranging immigration crackdown, including moves to limit some forms of legal immigration. The step to reshape the H-1B visa program represents his administration's most high-profile effort yet to rework temporary employment visas.

Read about innovative ideas and the people working on solutions to global crises with the Reuters Beacon newsletter. Sign up here. "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," U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said."

Absolutely. I've seen so many H1-B's doing run of the mill IT work. In the past, some job adds said "H1-B preferred." That's on top of all the Indian outsourcing.

It looks like Trump is one again making it expensive to use a foreign asset to encourage use or development of local assets. If they're truly talented and rare, then the $100,000 will be worth paying. I could see the A.I. field doing that since they're already doing it. Many will consider hiring or training Americans.

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

#746

Post by bolasanibk »

nimih wrote: post #656
nelox wrote: post #632

The actual proclamation [1] is very narrow: a $100k surcharge on new H-1B petitions for workers outside the US. It’s a one-time hit tied to the petition. It does not say “annual.” It does not drag in renewals or transfers for people already in status. Boundless is technically right that a $100k fee exists, but the piece glosses over the narrow scope and leans into speculation. It frames the fee like an ongoing tax on…

You may want to read the section on enforcement: > Section 1. Restriction on Entry. (a) Pursuant to sections 212(f) and 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1182(f) and 1185(a), the entry into the United States of aliens as nonimmigrants to perform services in a specialty occupation under section 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b), is restricted, except for those al…

Any idea what is considered a petition? New h1b? Transfer? Extension?

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

#747

Post by famerica »

wonderwonder wrote: post #603
stephen_cagle wrote: post #581

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…

I disagree, why would they then not just hire the H1B at 50k and pay a 25K fee. 100k flat annual fee plus the new minimum 150k salary returns the H1B program to its original purpose of allowing US companies to hire truly exceptional foreign workers who have skills US workers do not. This allows companies to do just that and pay for it and at the same time protects the jobs and job prospects of US workers

> new minimum 150k salary

Where did you get this from? It is not in the EO passed today: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/rest...

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

#748

Post by jppope »

osnium123 wrote: post #511

Won’t this mean that companies will move jobs to India, China or even Canada?

this news is tied with the tax code corrections... All R&D work in a foreign country is to be depreciated over 15 years, it can immediately be depreciated for an American worker.

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

#749

Post by newfriend »

softwaredoug wrote: post #671

People are debating the merits here, and losing the big picture. Congress makes laws. The executive implements them. It could be a fantastic idea. But then make it a law. Give the president the power to do something like this. Debating the merits without focusing on that first legitimizes this crazy psuedo law making Trump engages in and will enable him to be more arbitrary in other areas.

Pen and a phone. This is not a phenomenon unique to Trump.

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

#750

Post by HardCodedBias »

Note that the fee is triggered by entry.

It sounds like F1 and TN visa holders will be able to acquire H1B visas without triggering the fee (but no international travel afterwards or the fee would be triggered).

I suspect that the o1 and l1 visas will get more use if this actually gets enforced.

I also suspect that the large tech companies don't overly mind since they all have very active offshoring programs.

Post reply on HN