The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump’s hefty new visa fees for H-1B workers have prompted high-level talks inside companies in Silicon Valley and beyond on the possibility of moving more jobs overseas — precisely the outcome the policy was meant to stop.
Trump on Friday announced the change to the visa program that has long been a recruitment pathway for tech firms and encouraged international students to pursue postgraduate courses in the U.S. While the $100,000 levy applies only to new applicants — not current holders as first announced — the confusion around its roll-out and steep cost are already leading companies to pause recruitment, budgeting and workforce plans, according to interviews with founders, venture capitalists and immigration lawyers who work with technology companies.
“I have had several conversations with corporate clients … where they have said this new fee is simply unworkable in the U.S., and it’s time for us to start looking for other countries where we can have highly skilled talent,” said Chris Thomas, an immigration attorney at Colorado-based law firm Holland & Hart. “And these are large companies, some of them household names, Fortune 100 type companies, that are saying, we just simply cannot continue.”
