Several economists and immigration lawyers warned against President Donald Trump’s reported latest move on H-1B visas. Bloomberg cited sources to report that the administration is planning to hike application fees to $100,000 in order to ‘curb overuse’ and ‘abuse’ of the program.
The report added that Trump plans to sign a proclamation on Friday. It will restrict entry under the H-1B program unless accompanied by the payment, the White House official told the media outlet.
The White House has yet to announce the policy. No details are confirmed.
Read More: Amazon, Microsoft among companies sponsoring more H-1B visas than before: Report
‘End of the H-1B program’
However, reacting to the Bloomberg report, several experts on social media issued warnings.
“Adding a 100K fee to obtain an H-1B visa would end the program. It would be terrible for the U.S. economy, especially healthcare and STEM. Few if any firms will pay 100K to sponsor an immigrant on top of their salary. Thankfully, this is illegal,” Daniel Di Martino, a Columbia University PhD and Manhattan Institute, wrote on X, platform formerly known as Twitter.
“Trump plans to shoot America in the foot until the pain goes away. His baseless conspiracy theory that the H-1B harms US workers is supposed to be the basis for this illegal order, but this will harm US workers: lower wages & higher prices,” David J. Bier, Director of Immigration Studies at Cato Institute, tweeted.
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H-1B fees hike
Currently, fees directly tied to the H-1B visa application include a $215 fee to register for the lottery and a $780 fee for a Form I-129, which is a petition for a non-immigrant worker that is filed by an employer sponsor. It is unclear when the administration will hike the fees to $100K.
The H-1B visa program is reserved for people from other countries who are employed in specialty occupations in the United States, frequently in the technology field. They can include software engineers, tech program managers and other IT professionals.
Trump also planned to order changes to the prevailing-wage levels for the H-1B program as a way to limit their use, the official further told Bloomberg.
(With Reuters inputs)
