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- President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday that would change the H1-B visa program.
- The order raises the H1-B visa application fee to $100,000.
- Tech companies use the H1-B visa program to hire skilled foreign workers.
Hiring H1-B visa workers may have become a whole lot more expensive.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday that includes changes to the H1-B visa program, which many tech companies use to hire thousands of skilled foreign workers every year.
The order includes raising the H1-B application fee to $100,000. It’s unclear if that fee would replace or add to the existing fees, which are significantly lower.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who spoke alongside Trump in the Oval Office, said it would be a yearly fee for companies that hire H1-B workers. Officials said the fee would help ensure the visa is used to bring in workers who are actually very highly skilled and not to replace American workers.
“Either the person is very valuable to the company and America, or they’re going to depart and the company is going to hire an American,” Lutnick said, adding the changes would encourage companies to train Americans instead of bringing in foreign workers.
He said the fee would apply to new visas as well as renewals.
Some of the top tech companies sponsoring H1-B visas include Amazon, Microsoft, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, Meta, and Apple. Because companies are required to disclose to the government what they pay H1-B workers, the data has offered insights into Big Tech salaries.
Do you have a story to share about H1-B visas? Contact this reporter at [email protected].
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