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

(www.reuters.com)
1233 points mriguy | 3 comments | 19 Sep 25 19:59 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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bhouston ◴[20 Sep 25 01:12 UTC] No.45308820[source]▶
This is actually smart. Many H1B visas are used to undermine fair labor wages for already local talent. We should ensure that H1B visas are for actual unique talent and not just to undercut local wages.

H1B is ripe with abuse - this article by Bloomberg says that half of all H1-B visas are used by Indian staffing firms that pay significantly lower than the US laborers they are replacing:

- https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-h1b-visa-middlemen-c...

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epistasis ◴[20 Sep 25 01:20 UTC] No.45308920[source]▶
This is very short term thinking, in that it assumes a constant amount of work and ignores the global competition for labor.

If the US loses its massive lead in the network effects of a large labor pool, the amount of work in the US will shrink, both by moving to other countries and less overall innovation.

This is not a beneficial move for most software engineers.

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ahmeneeroe-v2 ◴[20 Sep 25 01:30 UTC] No.45309031[source]▶
There is not a global competition for talent.

How many people on here can truly say that they were considering between two different countries. That doesn’t happen at scale.

There is a global competition for coming to Western Europe, Canada, and the US

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barrkel ◴[20 Sep 25 01:37 UTC] No.45309125[source]▶
I had to choose between California and Germany. It is a thing.
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goykasi ◴[20 Sep 25 01:57 UTC] No.45309381{3}[source]▶
Did you have to choose? Or did you have the option? I would wager to bet that a significant amount of people in the US cant afford to move to another state.
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1. epistasis ◴[20 Sep 25 02:48 UTC] No.45309803{4}[source]▶
Can you distinguish option and needing to choose here? Having an option would necessarily cause a need to choose.
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2. goykasi ◴[20 Sep 25 03:11 UTC] No.45309946[source]▶
I can confidently say yes. Choosing between working in two different countries separated by an entire ocean is an option. Moving to a different state is expensive for many, but moving to another continent is only afforded to a privileged minority.
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3. freetime2 ◴[20 Sep 25 10:11 UTC] No.45311991[source]▶
Why is it relevant, though?