The Trump administration will require companies to pay $100,000 per year for H-1B work visas starting September 21. In response, some tech giants have advised their foreign employees not to leave the US or to return immediately. What do IT professionals and economists think about this?
The Trump administration will require companies to pay $100,000 per year for H-1B work visas starting September 21. In response, some tech giants have advised their foreign employees not to leave the US or to return immediately. What do IT professionals and economists think about this?
On September 19, the White House chief of staff signed an executive order requiring H-1B visa holders or their corporate sponsors to pay an annual fee of $100,000, and the visa.
It says these visas are used by major employers, including tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon and outsourcing companies like Cognizant, for their workers. It is estimated that this could mean a new financial burden of more than $1 billion per year.
Axios, citing a White House official, explained that the new fee will not apply to holders of valid visas who are re-entering the U.S. The publication explains that this clarification is important because Trump’s order has been misunderstood by some lawyers.
Trump’s decision to charge $100,000 per year for each person with an H-1B work visa is potentially good news for global outsourcing. Yesterday I saw a video clip where an American calls the support of an American company and gets through to Indian support, where he aggressively asks why. He just wanted to buy some crap. To which the Indian employee says that she understands his dissatisfaction, and therefore is ready to give the contacts of American competitors who will be happy to sell similar crap, but for an additional $212. Obviously, a principled American is changing his tone dramatically and buying where it’s cheaper. It’s like in that joke Espresso — 50 UAH Espresso — 20 UAH We are witnesses to an office of simple solutions in the American style, which fits into a new era of uncertainty and turbulence.
On H1B in the USA, many outsourcers transported not super qualified employees to take more money from clients because they are «local». The average qualification of developers in the USA is enough. Now it will not be profitable. But it will be possible to bring in really qualified employees for whom $100k per year will not be expensive for the company. But since H1B is a lottery and not all companies receive quotas, now there will be more visas available for real highly qualified specialists.
If our government had any brains, it would take advantage of this situation. But… there are no brains, so it won’t be better.
Ambivalent. With these moves, the Trump administration is creating uncertainty that is slowing down growth, and not only in the US. Accordingly, there is less work for outsourcers.
A significant part of the world’s outsourcing industry may be harmed by AI in the next 3-5 years. And Trump’s actions are only harming the American economy, because they will contribute to a reduction in official labor immigration of qualified specialists and will not particularly affect illegal immigration.
H-1B is one of the most popular types of work visas in the US, the main users of which are doctors, models, and participants in Ministry of Defense projects, and of course the «Indian» IT sector.
The main goal of increasing the cost of visas is to increase the percentage of employment in these areas disproportionately to the growth of hired specialists from other countries.
For temporary agricultural workers, managers, prominent scientists and artists, athletes, and other categories, the United States provides other types of temporary «non-immigrant» visas.
How such a measure will work remains to be seen, but they claim that «virtually all large companies in the US» lobbied for this measure, without specifying which ones. In 2017, there was already such an attempt to increase the cost of such visas, but then Steve Bannon was a staunch opponent, and therefore they limited themselves to a decree that tightened the verification of applications for H-1B visas.
In general, India has become tense and will most likely «attack» EU countries in its typical «gypsy manner.» If this process of «gypsyizing the EU» progresses quickly, there will really be «little room» for our youth generation in the EU…
