NBC:
President Donald Trump signed a proclamation Friday requiring companies to pay a $100,000 fee to obtain H-1B worker visas.
The proclamation comes as the Trump administration intensifies its crackdown on immigration, through raids and massive deportation efforts in cities nationwide.
The proclamation-signing is a win for immigration hardliners on Capitol Hill, but is likely to rankle tech executives seeking qualified workers from abroad.
The H-1B visa program, which was signed into law by then-President George H.W. Bush in 1990, enables skilled workers from overseas to temporarily work in the United States. Major tech companies have relied on approvals from the program to hire employees from abroad. Amazon was among the top beneficiaries of the program, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data, with more than 10,000 approvals, followed by Tata Consultancy Services, with 5,500 and Microsoft and Meta, with more than 5,000 approvals each. more
NBC’s Zoë Richards:
Lazy, innumerate author. What was the fee before this hike?
New or current visa’s?
Good point Uncle Al… Here is what Grok puked out:
“Total Estimated Cost for a New H-1B Petition (Typical Employer): Approximately $4,000–$6,000 upfront, excluding legal/attorney fees (often $2,000–$5,000 more) and optional premium processing. Renewals (Form I-129 extensions) were cheaper, around $1,500–$2,500, as some one-time fees didn’t apply.”
Uncle Al: I was wondering the same thing.
Why do we need 65,000 people a year plus another 20,000 with post-graduate degrees? Is it because foreigners are willing to work for less money?
Hopefully Trump has an answer to that legal question.
Probably not high enough, but at least giving pause to H1-b abuse.
I.T., Help Desk, and any other offshore place will just use them overseas. Damn, getting 14 to 15 calls a day for medicare, Illinois Benefits, Damaged Roof estimates, Siding and Windows, my computer is putting out errors, Microsoft Security Resolution Desk. The car accident i was in, Pay the tax and they will send me my inheritance from a dead Nigerian King and on and on. Hell, none of those are located in the US, they are all overseas.
Until the government puts a stop to spoofed email and phone numbers, nothing much will change. Could have easily solved this problem by removing the countries IP Address until it stopped. Can no longer do this because Barky gave away ownership of the Internet and we can’t control it anymore.
I don’t believe there was a fee.
From the article, “…likely to rankle tech executives seeking qualified workers from abroad.”
I think that’s the point of this exercise. There is no legal justification for seeking qualified workers from abroad, when there are qualified workers domestically…and there are plenty.
These companies aren’t really paying foreign workers that much less, if they pay less at all. The obvious appeal is to fit in with the group…and control. Foreign workers are a fad and tech company executives must have the latest. Foreign workers are also bound to their employer. If they misbehave, they get sent back home.
Less obvious is that after decades of favoring foreign workers, foreign workers have inserted themselves into middle and upper level management, particularly in HR. Many are now citizens, some of them second and third generation or more. Kind of assimilated, kind of not.
Like the feminists before them, they prioritize hiring and advancing people like them. A $100,000 fee might be enough to knock most businesses out of their rut, especially if there is a commensurate increase in renewal fees.
If Trump can do the same with Student Visas and scholarships earmarked for foreign students, it could break that persistent loop in the hiring cycle, among other benefits.
We lost service jobs to offshore calling centers decades ago. Those aren’t likely to come back without enforcing enforceable restrictions (as mentioned by Anonymous). Much of the skilled positions have come back, albeit in the form of H1b visas. It was found that skilled workers needed to be closer, in order to maintain efficiency.
For me, the primary issue is that we don’t need new immigration laws. We need the provisions in existing laws enforced. The Dept. of Labor, one of the most corrupt organizations in the swamp, has not properly overseen the H1b process, instead, pretty much letting businesses self-regulate. It is essentially a make-work project for law firms.
We have regressed to the third-world corruption of a century ago, complete with robber barons and murderous anarchists. It kind of makes sense. That was the last time Communism had any momentum in the US. This time, it will be done right (Leftists never tire of using that phrase).
I hope the executives are rankled
Make it cheaper to hire the domestic vs the foreign.