President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing a high $100,000 fee on new petitions for H-1B visas, which allow highly skilled foreign professionals to work in the United States temporarily. The order took effect on Sept. 21, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services clarified on how to comply to the new implementation on Oct. 20.
U.S. employers sponsor H-1B visas for international employees with a bachelor’s degree or higher in a relevant field. The program addresses shortages of specialized skills among U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Around 300,000-400,000 H-1B applications, including renewal petitions, are approved each year, of which 65% are held by professionals in computer science.
Harker parent and software engineer Seema Nayak came to the United States from India in 1996 to pursue a job under the H-1B visa program. At the time, employers selected applicants based on their expertise and paid between $2,000 and $5,000 to submit an H-1B petition. For Nayak, the extensive visa application process represented the first step towards building a new life and career in the United States.
“The United States needs a diverse workforce to grow,” Nayak said. “When people from different countries come to this country, you can actually brainstorm and contribute to new projects more efficiently with more perspectives. It’s very critical in time management because if companies want to do initiatives faster or quicker, working together in one place helps rather than being diverse across time zones.”
President Donald Trump claimed that U.S. employers were abusing the H-1B program to introduce cheaper foreign labor at the expense of opportunities for Americans, especially in fields like information technology. He cited high unemployment rates among computer science and engineering graduates.
“The large-scale replacement of American workers through systemic abuse of the program has undermined both our economic and national security,” Trump said in the order. “Some employers, using practices now widely adopted by entire sectors, have abused the H-1B statute and its regulations to artificially suppress wages, resulting in a disadvantageous labor market for American citizens, while at the same time making it more difficult to attract and retain the highest skilled subset of temporary workers.”
Junior Kayla Chen, who researches Chinese-American immigration, noted that limiting H-1B visas could depress innovation in affected fields. According to Kayla, international talent is essential for introducing novel ideas and keeping the U.S. industries competitive on the global stage.
“What Trump is trying to do is make America more American — to give more opportunities to Americans rather than people outside of America,” Kayla said. “But what that actually does is decrease a lot of the competition and diversity in companies — not just race or gender, but diversity in different types of [national] backgrounds, which has been proven to allow companies to be more innovative and grow faster.”
Harker parent and former H-1B visa holder Zhen Li agrees that the executive order could change the pace of start-up entrepreneurship in American industries. Large and established corporations that are able to shoulder a higher financial burden will likely sponsor the vast majority of H-1B visas. For small companies and start-ups, $100,000 could be prohibitively expensive.
“We are going to see some unintended consequences,” Li said. “What it will impact is probably going to be the most talented, entrepreneurial type of students. They will say, ‘no, wait a minute. I would rather stay in China, in India, in Japan, in Germany and finish my college degrees and start my own businesses there.’”
In the days following the proclamation, the executive order seemed ambiguous on who would pay the $100,000 and whether it would affect current visa-holders and petitioners partway through the legal process. Because the White House announced the order on a Friday afternoon to be implemented the following Monday, international workers did not have the opportunity to seek clarification from employers and lawyers, according to Li.
“People who were traveling outside of the country saw this — does it mean if I don’t get back to the U.S. by Sunday midnight, me or my company needs to pay $100,000?” Li said. “It was disruptive. Some of these folks just came back and booked whatever ticket they could find, direct ticket or multi-stop, because they don’t know.”
The executive order not only created confusion for visa holders but also left employers trying to understand how the new requirements would affect their employees. To be cautious, companies urged their foreign employees to return to the United States before the order came into effect. Nayak, being a software development manager, noted the immediate impact of the announcement, highlighting how sudden changes can deeply affect managers’ responsibilities in navigating immigration rules.
“In my group of 9 people, almost 30% of the people are on H-1B, specifically from India and China,” Nayak said. “When hearing about the news, I had to look through who works for me, their status, and when their H1-B is expiring. I needed to see whether the people with H-1B now will need the 100k fee or if only the new people who are coming fall under the umbrella.”