When the H-1B visa was established under the Immigration Act of 1990, lawmakers provided an unprecedented opportunity for employers to petition for highly educated foreign professionals to work in “specialty occupations” for three to six years — at the cost of $5,000 per employee.
But under President Trump’s executive order, which came into effect on Sept. 21, that price has increased by a factor of 20 — $100,000.
If this policy sustains legal challenges, it will deal a severe blow to the number of highly educated immigrants coming here, hurting all facets of the economy — from small businesses to tech companies to rural communities — all while targeting minorities like immigrants from India, who make up 70% of H-1B visas.
Trump’s rationale for his large cost increase is to give more jobs to American citizens, but that simply isn’t grounded in reality. Hiring H-1B workers requires a rigorous application process in which employers must prove the employment of a foreign worker will not hurt U.S. workers’ wages and working conditions.
The jobs accompanying H-1B visas also often require the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree — especially for positions like software engineers and researchers, not to mention the annual cap of 65,000 visas, with 20,000 additional put aside for foreign professionals who graduate with a master’s or doctoral degree from a U.S institution; all of these are built-in safeguards to the very concerns Trump raises.
Furthermore, data indicate H-1B workers actually assist employment opportunities for U.S. citizens.
Most notably, the H-1B visa program was instrumental to the COVID-19 vaccine development process. Eight U.S. companies involved in the development of COVID-19 vaccines received approvals for H-1B visas for 3,310 specialized workers key to the research process, expediting the timeline for research, experimentation and distribution .
With the visa’s new exorbitant price tag, companies will draw back from expanding, and the economy will undoubtedly take a hit. In turn, prices will continue to go up for consumer goods and small businesses reliant on access to H-1B expertise will shrink significantly. Beyond the loss of highly educated workers, the fee places small businesses and rural communities in a particularly hard place.
Many small businesses rely on H-1B visas to succeed. Not only do they enable startups and scale-ups to recruit specialized talent, accelerate product development and higher wage job creation, research has shown that companies receiving H-1B visas experience stronger financial performance, greater innovation and higher likelihoods of going public.
Rural communities are most vulnerable to the loss of educated immigrants. According to a National Library of Medicine 2021 survey, a significant majority of international medical graduates practice in rural areas or areas lacking adequate access to medical care.
Some lobbying and business groups are pushing back — the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has filed a lawsuit challenging the $100,000 fee, alleging that Trump’s executive order exceeded its authority under the Immigration and Nationality act as well as violating the Administrative Procedure Act by bypassing Congress. This lawsuit will take time to resolve, but the H1B visa fee is impacting the U.S. now.
Taken into context, Trump’s fee continues a concerning trend of exclusion by this administration. From anti-immigration policies like widespread ICE raids to the H-1B visa fee, the Trump administration is clearly trying to prevent other ethnic groups from entering America. However, while he is focused on preventing non-white ethnicities from coming to America, he is prioritizing increasing the immigration of Afrikaner, white South Africans.
Ultimately, these moves are a kind of thinly veiled racism. Trump is attempting to prevent diverse ethnic groups from entering America, a concerning trend as Saratoga itself sits as a hotbed of successful immigrant stories (many of them from the H-1B visa) and diversity.
If Trump succeeds in his anti-immigration policies, what’s to say that in the future, he won’t also implement harsher policies on minority citizens seeking employment or job security.
William • Dec 1, 2025 at 7:35 pm
Right. It also means small companies won’t be able to afford the high-skill workers that huge firms like Microsoft can easily pay for.