Public sentiment is largely negative and reflects significant anxiety about the new H-1B visa fees, with many Americans fearing that they will not improve job opportunities for U.S. workers and will further incentivize outsourcing. While some believe the fees could prompt companies to hire locally, the prevalent view is skepticism about the effectiveness of the policy and concerns over its impact on both local and international labor markets.

U.S. Government

Employers/Corporations

Major_Instance_4766

So this is basically zero change since almost all H1Bs come in as students and nobody is really paying to relo applicants from outside the US. I know at my company we automatically filter out any applicants that are outside the US.

Smurph269

The clarification always confused me since the day it came out. It makes the fee too easy to avoid. 


I wonder how they'll handle someone entering with a different visa (a visitor visa, for example), then changing their status to H1B.

mentai_ko

The number is 72%. This reverses 72% of the fees. I bet the job posts are already being taken down. 

pl487

So frustrating Americans are competing with the ENTIRE world for jobbs

dudebrah1098

isn’t this always implied? Change of status are not “new” h1b petitions, so it only applies for people outside of the country at the time

Ligeia_E

This is probably a great idea for medical professionals, but is so dumb for our field. We have no shortage of home grown new grads in this field.

The $100k fee needs to go, and H1-Bs should go to the highest bidder to ensure only the best are being brought here.

i_am_bromega

So this $100K fee was just for show then?   
Because almost all the applicants are students in US. 

Some go to top schools but majority go to degree mills so they can do F1 &gt; OPT &gt; H1B &gt; Green card and this path remains unchanged by the fee.

wubalubadubdub55

&gt; Since almost all H-1Bs come in as bachelors or masters students

Is this actually true? I find it difficult to believe TCS and infosys are mostly domestic hiring of international students

ArkGuardian

beetletoman

Seeing the authoritarian path the US is barreling down and knowing that foreigners are one of the first to be targeted, and are already being targeted, why would you still consider that an option for studies?

cosmic-creative

[deleted]

Aren't foreign enrollments in universities way down though?

CanIAskDumbQuestions

And people were worried about jobs being outsourced

ThinkOutTheBox

Sucks. Was really hoping a lot of internationals would get sent home.

Ok-Individual9159

What about f-2 to h-1b? If they have approved i-140? Can they file for change of status without fee?

fahad_tariq

This administration had a chance to do the EASIEST thing and blew it

AljoGOAT


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&gt; Her starting salary was $85,000/year. The proposed annual fee would be more than the cost of her salary. Despite being an excellent engineer, paying $100,000 to sponsor her visa would not have been viable or realistic.

&gt; There are not enough Americans with the highly specialized technical skills we need to grow as a company. 

I hate, hate, *hate* everyone involved in the current administration. And I believe that pay-to-play visas are at least as harmful to workers as they are to employees, even if they were being undertaken in good faith (which these obviously aren't - just like everything to do with tariffs, it's an opportunity for corruption and grift).

That said... I have no sympathy for this author. $85k is a laughably low salary for a talented ML engineer, even one right out of college with no experience. Any serious tech company is offering almost twice that. And with all the layoffs and churn going on at the big companies as they change their minds on strategy, the idea that there's nobody at all on the market is also laughable.

If your company relies on paying people way below market rate, you deserve to go out of business. That's the whole point of a market economy: clearly your idea just isn't that valuable.

General_Mayhem

I wrote a detailed analysis of this Time article, breaking down each of the main claims about H1B visa fees, U.S. competitiveness, and labor market effects. The article makes some valid points, but it overlooks several key dynamics around wages, offshoring, and domestic labor incentives. I’ve included my full breakdown below.

all-inAnalytics

One area that gets overlooked in this discussion is healthcare workers. 

I work with a federally qualified health center in a rural area.  They really struggle to attract US based providers because if you’ve just finished med school and you’re in demand and can take your pick of locations to practice, you probably don’t want to start your career in backwater rural USA.  

So, they rely on recruiting H1B visa healthcare providers to care for their patients in areas where they can’t attract US based providers. 

Now, they’re having to pay an extra $100k to recruit those providers, and as a result, they’re booking months out for critical healthcare.

AtOurGates

This is a corporation problem not us Americans or immigrants. Corporations are greedy and they know. 

So many friends of mine work in the Silicon Valley and there’s a lot of people on H1B visas that get paid absolute shit and those workers also then work their ass off for the jobs. A lot of desi culture is about working your ass off and not complaining, my dad is like that. But when you’re competing with others, you get priced out too then.

digitalnomad_909

It’s not about the price of the visa, it’s about the US itself. Why would I risk being arrested, humiliated, discriminated against, or possibly sent to a concentration camp just to work in a foreign country? No thanks, I’d rather stay in my own country.

ActConscious8864

Not bad in principle, but grossly illegal like all of the king's fiats. He will probably use it to leverage bribes from the AI oligarchs

LackNo6962

H1B limitations don’t do much without laws that also 

- force companies to hire overseas agents for median us wages

Or 

- tax overseas hiring so badly that that it’s truly used as a last resort

imhereforthemeta

When PE took over my company, they fired half of us to move the jobs overseas. They have a "no Americans" policy.

Splith

Combined w/TARIFFS, it will mean many more good jobs in U.S. for Americans.

TacticalSkeptic2

Jumpy_Childhood7548

Even without the fee, you're very unlikely to find a sponsor in the US unless you already work for them abroad, sorry. This is one of those things where the paper requirements are quite straightforward, the control is finding a willing sponsor who'd spend $10,000s (even before the new fee) on you when they could just hire someone local, plus there's little stopping you changing employers afterwards on H1B or even more so EB.

postbox134

You'll have to find an H1B sponsor willing to pony up the $100K for your visa, and willing to try to employ people from overseas amidst the present chaos.

Aggressive_Ad_5454

You can try but yeah it’s going to be hard

Salty_Permit4437

I believe your best bet is to work for a multinational company in your own country for a couple years and then ask for a transfer.

North_Artichoke_6721

The likelihood that a company will sponsor you is astronomically low. Applying to jobs online without a working visa quite honestly has less chance of success than entering the green card diversity lottery, which opens in October. 

I mean this totally seriously: if you want to move to the US, you have a better chance with the green card lottery or coming over as a tourist and chatting up your preferred gender looking to make a connection towards marriage (unless you're already married), than you do just applying for jobs online sans visa.

Good jobs are very difficult for Americans to come by now. Getting a company to sponsor you (especially with the new $100,000 fee) is just... unfathomably unlikely. I wouldn't waste my time applying for jobs you see advertised.

OkTechnologyb

You need to ask yourself if a company would be willing to spend an extra $100K to bring you in. This is on top of it already being difficult to be sponsored. Do you have some nice or rare skills? Are you at the top of your field?

gambit_kory

Also, when you say you "qualify for EB2," are you sure about that? Have you read beyond just the most general description of the visa for what it entails to actually get it? Below is only the first step:

https://preview.redd.it/zpr5hmncijrf1.jpeg?width=828&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;s=b3e5ad032e53414f2907ffc330789b8ec145e3ac

OP you know this better than we could. How long have you been applying? How many have you applied for? Have you ever gotten a nibble or is it just radio silence?

Mysterious-Art8838

missbehavin21

I'm in the IT industry. H1B visas have always been a scam. They are supposed to be for companies to sponsor and hire tech workers who have skills not readily available in the USA. The reality is big tech companies (think MS, Apple, Alphabet, etc.) claim they can't find software developers, engineers, etc . Then they use H1B to hire tech staff from India, China, Eastern Europe for half of what they would pay Americans. And there are always plenty of American tech workers looking for a job. I'm not talking about experts in AI research or theoretical physics. I'm talking about Java coders and entry level engineers.

From-628-U-Get-241

I honestly had the same question. I was just starting my studies to become a nurse with the end goal to move to America. 
I have distant relatives in America and I'm related to this person called sheriff Charlie Bassett, so I desperately wanted to look into this further..... and then trump bought out the new terms of the visa and I can't see us ever moving over now 

So, if someone would like to adopt an adult daughter haha with a husband and 2 kids to take under their wing, I don't think I'll ever be able to move now 😂 

In one sense I completely get it. You want to have more jobs for Americans, but it's so disheartening as someone who wants to move there.

effyscorner

Bubbly_Ad_6830

NecessaryDoubt8667

I'd go with the EB2, OP, since you're qualified. Have you looked at US job listings in your field, to see if they're open to foreign hires?  Everyone advises to find a US company in the UK to work for, then apply for a transfer after getting established with them, but some companies do send recruiters to various parts of Europe. Or have, in the past. it depends on what your specialized training is in.

With the H1B option closed off to most applicants (which I think was the point: to open more jobs to Americans, some of whom had gotten pushed out of their own jobs in favor of cheaper imported expertise), it means you'll have few competitors, so you may have a better chance as a result, especially applying as an EB2 candidate. It's worth a try, IMO.

Fit-Building-2560

$100k will not impact a big corporation at all. they save much more than that by paying immigrant labor much less money than Americans. an h1b is for three years , and if they pay an engineer $50k less, the immigrant is still cheaper.

Zestyclose-Height-36

Do we have level of tech talent to take up all jobs ?

jordan3184

I just learned that some companies hire a foreigner who is on a visitor's visa. Then every 6 months, they travel out of the US and come back in 1-2 weeks.

rbetterkids

Efficient_Leg_5331

You didn’t divide the jobless claims by the number of IT computer people unemployed. Then take the 85k and times it by the % that goes to the IT computer industry.

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  The Trump administration has brought major relief to thousands of Indian tech workers and students in the US by announcing that the recently introduced $100k H-1B visa fee will not apply to many existing visa holders. The clarification, issued by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), ends weeks of confusion and panic that followed president Trump's earlier proclamation. 

Source - [https://www.indiaweekly.biz/h1b-visa-fees-exemption-holders/](https://www.indiaweekly.biz/h1b-visa-fees-exemption-holders/) 

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Good, now everyone has clarity on the fee and for whom it applies. Now we will have to wait and see what else the President has in store for us 😢

Naansense23

wodkaholic

Officials confirm that the new rule will not affect anyone already living in the US on a valid visa, including those on F-1 student visas, L-1 intra-company transfers, or current H-1B visas seeking renewal or extension.

intelerks

This is some good news, yes, but the damage to H1B has already been done. Employers in the US will think twice or thrice to hire foreigners from now on, given the uncertainty in H1B visa policy and enhanced government scrutiny on whether or not the foreigner being hired possesses skills that US nationals don't have. Following extensive layoffs, there are 100s of thousands of unemployed US national techies, so employers would rather simply hire them instead of foreigners / foreign students on F1 or OPT. 

So, don't start celebrating yet, and tread cautiously if you are planning on taking on a huge student loan to go to study in the US.

disc_jockey77

Some fear-mongerer of this subreddit will come and say"it is fake".

Itchy_Performance_80

What about prospective F-1 visa holders 🧐

Secure_Ice_2792

They can simply deny the petitions instead or give 221g etc

fred66a

Small reprieve before the birthright citizenship bomb comes along.

Supreme Court is picking up this case this fall.

mister_berrific

Does the fee apply to people with approved i140s who have been out of US for some time now?

sidthetravler

Simple question will it affect existing students in US on F1 visa graduating in 2027 ??

rx8225

The introduction of a new $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications is prompting U.S. companies to change hiring strategies, affecting job opportunities.

Impact of New H-1B Visa Fees on U.S. Hiring Practices

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