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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

#981

Post by digianarchist »

digianarchist wrote: post #689
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…

AP is reporting the amount as an annual fee https://apnews.com/article/h1b-visa-trump-immigration-8d3969... Reuters https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/trump-mulls-a...

This was clarified today as not being correct.

> Lutnick also repeatedly said on Friday that the fee would be annual for companies, while the White House official said Saturday that it’s a “one-time fee that applies only to the petition.”

> In her Saturday afternoon post, Leavitt clarified that the payment would only be a “one-time fee” — not an annual one.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/20/donald-trump-h1b-vi...

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

#982

Post by digianarchist »

scheme271 wrote: post #289
decimalenough wrote: post #132

Instead of a flat fee, they should just auction off the visas, highest salaries win. This has been proposed before and I don't really see any downsides. If your company really needs them, just pay them what they're actually worth.

This insures that tech and finance get all the visas. A lot of things like rural medicine gets staffing through h1b sponsored physicians and likewise for post-docs and researchers. If this gets implemented across the board, a lot of science is going to disappear and a lot of medical care (especially outside of cities) is going to get a lot worse.

They should cap visas issued by sector or DoL job families. It's way too skewed towards tech.

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

#983

Post by digianarchist »

scheme271 wrote: post #661
softwaredoug wrote: post #554

IMO I think we need to fast-track H1Bs -> Green Card -> Citizens. Make skilled immigration easier, not harder. Otherwise, if its too onerous, we're just training another countries workforce.

This is already the case with Indians and possibly Chinese. The waiting time for h1b to green card for Indians is several decades right now and maybe 5-10 years for Chinese. Things might get better if the climate discourages future immigration from these countries but there's already a big backlog in place.

That's about to speed up when H1-Bs drop to the hundreds next year.

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

#984

Post by digianarchist »

dagaci wrote: post #960

I hear American's have to get in debt for over 100k for the same education thats almost free in so many places, so it might be a kind of balancing things..

Employers aren't allowed to pass visa fees straight off to an employee.

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

#986

Post by jayanmn »

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…

Half of India’s talent will be in US next day after H1B cap is removed. I will be first one to try

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

#988

Post by therealrealpops »

Everyone knows that most H1Bs in the US are not exceptional or more qualified than Americans. The ones that are, are the exceptions not the case. Most H1Bs actually have pretty high paying jobs in their countries compared to salaries there. They just want more and use it as a loop hole to get in the US.

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

#989

Post by throwaway219450 »

DeRock wrote: post #86
mister_mort wrote: post #27

If this is truly per application, the companies that try to boost their chances with the lottery by creating multiple applications for the same person are going to get hit hard . Phantom companies that only exist on paper so people can tweak the probabilities are now liabilities. We'll see a rebalancing for sure.

> the companies that try to boost their chances with the lottery by creating multiple applications for the same person This was already addressed by changing the odds to be per unique candidate, not application, thereby reducing the incentive to game it. More context here: https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/news-releases/uscis-announces...

I find it odd that the H-1B has no per-country limits, which would have avoided all of this from the start.

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

#990

Post by redserk »

elktown wrote: post #861
Animats wrote: post #725

The $100,000 fee isn't the real route to a visa. See the proclamation text: [1] (c) The restriction imposed pursuant to subsections (a) and (b) of this section shall not apply to any individual alien, all aliens working for a company, or all aliens working in an industry, if the Secretary of Homeland Security determines, in the Secretary’s discretion, that the hiring of such aliens to be employed as H-1B specialty oc…

This thread is a poignant example of why I think tech folks might be one of the most gullible crowds out there - despite being perceived as smart. It's like a perfect storm of attributes and incentives. So here we are, completely preoccupied with picking apart details and effects of visa programs for a blatantly obvious kiss-the-ring initiative that couldn't care less about that.

The old “book smart vs street smart” rings loudly.

I completely disagree with much of what the Trump Administration is pushing, but they seemed to execute on the “street smarts” while policy wonks and others who want to analyze are preoccupied discussing policy.

Frankly it’s embarrassing how gullible and easily tricked much of the intellectual class is.

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