←back to thread

Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

(www.reuters.com)
1245 points mriguy | 1 comments | 19 Sep 25 19:59 UTC | HN request time: 0.343s | source
Show context
srameshc ◴[19 Sep 25 20:45 UTC] No.45306345[source]▶
This is going to kill H1B and immigration from countries like India, China and others for skilled workers. Even though $100K isn't a lot considering the overall investment that goes into hiring a full time employee, employers wouldn't risk that kind of money apart from all the document processing they have to. Maybe big tech will hire a few hundred every year but others won't even bother.
replies(5): >>45306485 #>>45306646 #>>45306739 #>>45310519 #>>45310767 #
gorbachev ◴[19 Sep 25 21:18 UTC] No.45306739[source]▶
It is, however, a great opportunity for Canada and Western Europe to snatch all those people who now aren't able to come to the United States.

I know for a fact that multinational companies are expanding in exactly those areas (plus India) for exactly the reason that it's become very difficult to hire and move people to the US.

Those workers aren't paying taxes in the United States, and obviously the companies hiring people outside of the US aren't going to hire people for those positions in the United States.

replies(3): >>45307381 #>>45307669 #>>45307802 #
1. kelnos ◴[19 Sep 25 22:48 UTC] No.45307669[source]▶
Right. The current problem with H-1B is that we end up with a wide range of talent, ambition, and work ethic among the people brought in on that visa. In my experience, the total mix is not much different from the range you'd find in US-born workers. But we should be granting visas to the best and the brightest to come here.

I wouldn't mind a new policy that would raise the median "quality" of the H-1B visa holder, even if that meant the total number is lower. Sure, Canada and Western Europe can take the mediocre people we'd no longer be granting visas to, but so what.

But this $100k policy is not going to increase the median quality of candidates. I actually don't think it's going to have a huge affect on things; it's just a token effort to "do something" that Trump's base will eat up, and he'll declare it a success even if there's no improvement or it makes things worse.