United States President Donald Trump is as soon as once more attempting to make employers pay $100,000 to rent expert overseas employees below the H-1B visa programme. Tech leaders like Elon Musk have lengthy backed the scheme as a approach to convey high international expertise to Silicon Valley. However critics on each the left and proper say the actual impact is to switch expert American employees with cheaper overseas employees who’ve far much less energy to push again.
What’s Trump proposing this time?
This week, the Trump administration proposed a further $103,265 price on each H-1B cap-subject petition, together with petitions eligible for the 20,000 advanced-degree exemption. The price can be paid by the employer when the petition is filed and would come on high of different applicable H-1B fees.
That is Trump’s second try to impose a six-figure H-1B cost. In September 2025, he launched a separate $100,000 cost requirement for sure H-1B employees outdoors the US. A federal choose struck down that measure in June.
The brand new proposal is structured in a different way: it will apply to cap-subject H-1B petitions, together with these eligible for the advanced-degree exemption. That might matter to worldwide college students within the US searching for to maneuver from F-1 standing into H-1B employment by the cap-subject system.
The Division of Homeland Safety revealed the proposal within the Federal Register this week. It’s open for public remark till September 24, after which DHS must think about the suggestions earlier than issuing any ultimate rule.
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Who truly will get H-1B visas?
- The annual H-1B cap is 85,000: 65,000 locations below the common cap and one other 20,000 for folks with qualifying superior levels from US universities.
- Employers filed greater than 344,000 purposes final 12 months, excess of the variety of visas accessible, so the federal government runs a lottery each April to determine who will get one.
- Greater than half of H-1B workers are employed in computer-related roles corresponding to technical help, programming and programs evaluation.
- Roughly three in 4 H-1B employees are born in India, with China a distant second at simply over one in ten.
Why does India care a lot about this?
India’s outsized share of the H-1B programme means any main change to the system is prone to have a disproportionate influence on Indian professionals. In FY2024, 71% of accredited H-1B petitions have been for folks born in India.
Critics of the outsourcing-heavy mannequin argue that some employers use H-1B employees in methods that may weaken the bargaining place of each visa holders and US employees. For Indian professionals, a pointy rise in the price of sponsorship might additionally make the trail from short-term employment to a longer-term US profession extra unsure.
Employers and know-how firms have lengthy argued that H-1B employees assist fill specialised positions for which they can’t discover sufficient certified US employees.
DHS’s proposal cites unnamed massive firms that continued to obtain hundreds of H-1B approvals whereas additionally finishing up massive layoffs, utilizing the figures to argue that the programme can be utilized in ways in which drawback US employees.
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In 2025, a software program engineer sued Tesla, alleging that the corporate employed about 1,355 H-1B employees whereas reducing greater than 6,000 US jobs. The allegations haven’t been established in court docket.
Is that this only a partisan struggle?
Opposition to the present system spans each events. Senator Bernie Sanders has known as the programme a type of “indentured servitude” that hurts each visa holders and US-born workers. Republican Chuck Grassley and Democrat Dick Durbin have pushed bipartisan laws for years to boost visitor employee wages and require job listings to be posted publicly.
Ron Hira, a political science professor at Howard College, argues the core concern is about labour guidelines, not immigration. “What you’re attempting to do is ready the principles across the labour market,” he mentioned, noting that visitor employees lack the identical employment protections as residents or everlasting residents.
Hira defined that as a result of employers maintain a employee’s authorized standing, visa holders typically have little room to barter. He mentioned a employee going through stress to work late or threat dropping their job “goes to be rather more docile,” since they’ve far much less bargaining energy than somebody with everlasting standing.
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Are H-1B employees underpaid?
Analysis suggests they typically are. George Borjas, a former member of Trump’s Council of Financial Advisers, discovered H-1B holders earn about 16% less on common than comparable US-born employees, with the hole widening to 30% for software program builders and laptop programmers. Different economists have challenged these numbers.
A separate Division of Labor proposal from March would elevate the wage flooring for H-1B employees, doubling the minimal from the seventeenth to the thirty fourth percentile of prevailing wages nonetheless properly beneath the median for US-born employees in comparable roles.
Will the $100,000 price truly work?
Hira mentioned the price, not like a wage enhance, targets employer revenue fairly than employee pay instantly. He defined that it pushes firms to be extra selective, making use of just for employees who generate sufficient worth to justify the associated fee.
However he cautioned that wealthier employers is probably not deterred. Unfold throughout a six-year visa, the price works out to round $16,000 to $17,000 a 12 months a manageable price for firms making considerably extra from that worker’s work. Employers who don’t see that form of return, he mentioned, will seemingly cease making use of altogether.
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Who will truly must pay the $103,265?
The employer/petitioner, not the H-1B employee instantly.
The proposed $103,265 price can be imposed on the employer or different petitioner submitting the H-1B petition. DHS says the price can be payable on the time of submitting and would come on high of all different relevant H-1B charges. The proposal applies to H-1B cap-subject petitions, together with these eligible for the 20,000 advanced-degree exemption.
Does it apply to current H-1B holders?
Not just because they already maintain an H-1B.
The proposal is aimed toward H-1B cap-subject petitions filed below the annual numerical cap. It doesn’t impose the $103,265 cost on all current H-1B holders, and the proposal particularly excludes cap-exempt H-1B filings.
Is the $103,265 price already in pressure?
No.
It is a proposed rule, not a ultimate rule. DHS revealed it within the Federal Register on August 25 and is accepting public feedback till September 24, 2026. The price would take impact provided that the proposal is finalised and carried out.
(With inputs from businesses)
