The Trump administration recently moved to curtail the H-1B visa program, which allows companies to employ highly-skilled workers from other countries when they can’t obtain such talent in the US.
As of Sept. 21, the administration is imposing a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa petitions, according to a proclamation issued on Sept. 19. The Department of Labor also launched a program to target companies that aren’t in compliance with laws regarding H-1B employment.
This crackdown seems likely to complicate the recruitment process for employers that rely heavily on foreign workers through the H-1B visa program.
What HR should know about H-1B visa fees. Under the new policy, any H-1B visa petitions submitted after 12:01 a.m. ET on Sept. 21 will require a one-time, $100,000 payment, according to an FAQ from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The fee requirement doesn’t apply to H-1B renewals or H-1B petitions that have already been filed, and doesn’t restrict current H-1B visa holders from traveling in or outside of the US.
In his proclamation, President Donald Trump argued that employers take advantage of the H-1B visa program to hire highly skilled workers at a lower cost than they would pay for American workers with a similar profile, though the H-1B program requires workers to be paid equally to their US colleagues in the same position, not less.
“It is therefore necessary to impose higher costs on companies seeking to use the H-1B program in order to address the abuse of that program while still permitting companies to hire the best of the best temporary foreign workers,” he wrote.
Prioritizing American talent. On the same day that the White House announced the new H-1B fee, the Department of Labor (DOL) rolled out “Project Firewall,” a program aimed at investigating employers that are abusing the visa process.
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Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer is expected to oversee investigations with the goal of ensuring “that highly skilled jobs go to Americans first,” she said in a statement.
Employers must meet a number of requirements in order to participate in the H-1B program, including paying these workers a “required wage rate,” offering them working conditions and benefits that are similar to those US workers receive, and providing them a copy of the Labor Condition Application required to employ such nonimmigrant workers.
The DOL didn’t specify what types of violations it will be investigating, but said the discovery of H-1B violations could result in penalties such as being barred from using the H-1B program for a period of time.
How this could affect H-1B employers. The move seems likely to affect companies in industries like tech, engineering, and healthcare that have historically relied on the H-1B program to source talent. Prior to the imposition of the $100,000 fee, private employers typically paid a $780 fee to sponsor an H-1B visa petition, plus additional fees ranging from $2,000 to $5,000.
Sources who spoke with CNBC suggested early-stage startups may be hardest hit by the change, as they have fewer resources to absorb these new costs.
The H-1B visa shakeup is part of a broader effort by the administration to limit programs including the H-2A, which applies to nonimmigrant workers in the agricultural sector, and temporary protected status, which previously allowed migrants from countries like Venezuela and Haiti to live and work legally in the US. Despite this crackdown, employers are still more willing to provide visa sponsorship to their workers than they were five years ago, HR Brew recently reported.