Federal judge voids Trump’s $100,000 fee requirement for H-1B visas | CNN Politics
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A federal judge on Monday voided President Donald Trump’s requirement of a $100,000 application fee for H-1B visas, ruling that he lacked authority to impose the new policy for a program used by companies to hire highly skilled foreign workers in specialized fields.
  • ilinamorato
    1·
    2 days ago

    Sure, in theory. But they’re not pulling people over here for a year or two. They’re getting them over here for several years, and every year they keep them on is another $50k saved.

    But on the other end, you have small businesses who need specialized labor that’s not available in the US. Or family businesses who want to bring other family members from out of the country and hire them to work for their little mom-and-pop shop, to further help bring their family out of poverty. Neither were likely to hire anyone local to do the job, and the $100k might be everything the business earns in a year after expenses.

    So the $100k fee does nothing to curb the onshoring of cheap labor by big companies who are causing the problem you want to solve, but it completely kills the ability of people in developing nations or people here who are trying to do right by their community to hire anyone who doesn’t already have the right to work in the US.

    • ilinamorato
      1·
      2 days ago

      I just realized I didn’t address the three year limit. Sure, they’re only saving $50k over the term of the visa now. But they’re gambling that the visa situation will be more favorable in three years, or that the job market will be in such shambles that they can afford to cut pay across the board, or replace people with AI, or whatever. It doesn’t just save them $50k, it lets them defer that cost for three years, which is three years that money can be earning interest for them. Plus, if they write it down as compliance or governmental fees or whatever, I believe there are beneficial tax implications.

      • testfactor
        1·
        1 day ago

        It’s an up front $100k though. It’s also a gamble in the other direction that the person stays the whole three years, which definitely isn’t guaranteed.

        As to your point about mom and pop shops wanting to bring over family, that’s not what H1-B visas are for. There are other ways to come to the US and naturalize without an H1-B visa.

        Small companies don’t currently bring people on with H1-B visas (pre the $100k tax), because it’s easier to bring over family and friends on other visa vehicles. They are iced out of that process, $100k tax or no.

        H1-B is designed directly for big businesses to pull in top talent from overseas, but is being abused to pull in huge amounts of cheap labor. So adding fees and restrictions to that only impacts big businesses.