Move is a blow to big tech companies, which rely heavily on visas to hire staff from overseas, particularly India

Donald Trump’s decision to impose a $100,000 (£74,096) fee on H1-B visas for skilled foreign workers could hurt US economic growth, economists have warned.

Trump signed a proclamation on Friday introducing the application fee for the H-1B visa, 60 times the current cost, in a move designed to encourage companies to hire more American workers.

The increase represents a blow to big tech companies, which rely heavily on such visas to hire engineers, scientists and coders from overseas, particularly India.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    1 month ago

    So does most of Trump’s ideas…

    What different here, is it’s going to cost billion dollar tech industries a shit ton of money.

    They’re gonna end up just building satellite offices in those countries to avoid the 100k up front, pay them even less, and avoid what little US working laws are left.

    There was like 110k h1bs in 2024, that’s about 10 billion dollars.

    Preemptive edit:

    I saw something that trump can just waive this for whoever he wants, so it’s 100% going to be used as a club to try and keep big tech on his side.

    Piss him off, and he’ll demand you fire every h1b he waived, or give him a giant check.

  • henfredemars@infosec.pubEnglish
    7·
    1 month ago

    I know he is not a fan of big tech companies, but they have bribed him before and I expect they’ll try to bribe their way out of this also.

  • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
    4·
    1 month ago

    H1bs are used to suppress US workers waves.

    Funny how these regime whore economists don’t give a fuck about that

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    1 month ago

    No shit.

    Goddamn this country is dumb.

    Hey foreigners, if you ever wanted to see what mass psychosis looks like, you can come here. But I’d recommend watching it from a distance.

  • sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net
    51·
    1 month ago

    I think normal people who need things like food and shelter might not see the benefits of all the economic growth that makes the top 0.1% even wealthier.

    The only one who gets paid in % of GDP is the government.

    Trump isn’t ultimately the guy to change any of that, but “economists warn” “could hurt […] Growth” isn’t a good reason to do or not do anything.

  • pearcake@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    1 month ago

    They left the avenue of converting from student visa to H1B visa open, which allows them to import cheap migrant labor as usual, and only applied 100k fee to real, skilled worker visas, which will be just outsourced now, lol. Stable genius of art of the deal strikes again.