BillLawrenceOnline

$100K Visa Fee Is Peanuts for Indentured Servitude

By Joe Guzzardi

President Donald Trump, on Sept. 19, issued his Proclamation entitled “Restrictions on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers” that imposes a $100,000, one-time fee for most new non-immigrant visa petitions filed after September 21 and restricts the ability of certain other H-1B visa holders to enter the U.S. The Proclamation applies only to petitions that have not yet been filed and not to aliens who already hold current, valid H-1B visas. Per the order, employers must now provide proof of payment when filing H-1B petitions, with enforcement overseen by the U.S. Departments of State and Homeland Security. The administration’s goal is to end the visa’s abuse and thereby ensure that only the most highly skilled foreign workers are selected for entry while encouraging employers to prioritize Americans.

The industry’s immediate response to the Trump administration’s abrupt but forceful action was widespread confusion as some H-1B visa holders cancelled plans to re-enter or scheduled return flights to the U.S. before the proclamation’s Sept. 21 effective date. However, for the H-1B’s countless critics who have been crying foul since the Immigration Act of 1990 created the American job-killing visa, cautious optimism prevailed.

The fee has had the desired effect of dampening employer enthusiasm for cheaper foreign labor. Walmart, America’s largest private-sector employer with approximately 1.6 million workers on its domestic payroll — a total that includes about 2,400 H-1B visa holders — announced that it would temporarily suspend hiring new H-1Bs.

Four decades ago, Congress, craven employers, and pro-immigration expansionists sold the visa as a vital stopgap measure for companies that could not fill essential jobs with domestic workers. But their fairy-tale vision contrasted sharply with reality. Using the H-1B program to facilitate the offshoring of U.S. jobs and replace U.S. workers is the exact opposite of the program’s advertised purpose of helping employers fill temporary labor shortages with workers possessing skills that are in short supply domestically. If it were operating as intended, the program should, when necessary, bring in skilled workers to complement the U.S. labor force. While in some cases H-1B workers are skilled and benefit the U.S. economy, the data showed early in the program’s history that a large percentage of visas were used to undercut and replace U.S. workers to boost corporate profits.

Prospective IT employers were understandably shocked at the new $100,000 fee. Before the Proclamation, the H-1B petition fee could range from approximately $460 to about $4,460. But visa critics were pleased at the hike because for decades, independently published research reports from conservative and liberal think tanks proved that unscrupulous employers underpaid and overworked their H-1B labor force. Ten years ago, President Jimmy Carter’s labor secretary Ray Marshall called the H-1B “one of the best con jobs ever done on the American public and political systems. The supporters argue that we have a shortage of college-educated workers. Well, there’s no evidence of that in the numbers…” During the decade since Marshall scorned the H-1B, the only significant change is that IT employers have gone on a dramatic firing spree, dismissing older, experienced native-born professionals while the annual lottery has admitted 85,000 new workers year after year. Some employers are exempt from the annual 85,000 cap, including universities and their affiliated nonprofit entities, nonprofit research organizations, and government research organizations. Because of the corporate exceptions, the arriving H-1B total far exceeds 85,000.

Of the top H-1B employers, many visas went to outsourcing firms — about one quarter of the annual 85,000 allotment. In 2024, at least 95,000 workers at U.S.-based tech companies were laid off; layoffs hit a peak in 2023 when around 200,000 tech workers were fired. Today, the tech job market is horrible. Over 200 tech companies have laid off 91,000 employees, yet the visa lottery persists as if the market were tight.

The five domestic corporations with the most H-1Bs include Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Tata Computer Services, with J.P. Morgan narrowly missing the top tier. Most enjoyed excellent fiscal 2024 net earnings: Microsoft, $88 billion, a 22% increase over 2023; Meta, $62 billion, up 59% year-over-year; Amazon, $60 billion. All could easily afford $100,000. But now the question the corporate titans must answer is why pay $100,000 for a foreign-born employee when recent college graduates or fired, unemployed workers could be hired for $0.00 and without immigration procedural headaches. Well-paid, white-collar IT jobs should go to Americans, not Indians who comprise 73% of the total or Chinese nationals, 13%.

$100,000 is a bargain basement deal for employers. Since the visa is valid for three years and includes an automatic three-year renewal, the company will pay about $16,666 per year over a six-year term for an indentured worker. Instead of serving its original purpose, the H-1B visa is a vehicle that suppresses wages, erodes job security, and sidesteps fair employment practices. For years, as it has laid off hundreds of thousands of talented, experienced U.S. engineers, the tech industry has vigorously lobbied Congress, pleading that without its annual overseas worker allocation, their businesses would teeter on the brink of collapse. So, put up or shut up. If the H-1Bs are as imperative to corporate survival as its advocates claim, then the $100,000 is pocket change.

Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org