TrumpCo. in 2019.
From Microsoft to employees
Corporations are either going to scream at Congress or they will just offshore more work. For tech workers, they're not at a point where they can replace the workers with AI and those workers are still needed.
This is turning out to be a shitshow, typical of the chaotic nonsense that comes out of Trump's Administration. Apparently this was another genius idea of the Heritage Foundation.
The $100,000 fee came out of an order from the White House on Friday (19-Sep-2025). The Administration said the change goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday (21-Sep-2025).
The short notice had immediate impact with travelers who were on international flights or who were scheduled for international flights being uncertain whether they were impacted. CEOs were caught off guard and hastily tried to get clarification from their legal departments on what this change meant.
On social media (which somehow is now allowed to be an "official communication" method?) the Administration said, that it would "not impact the ability of any current visa holder to travel to/from the U.S".
On Saturday, USCIS sent out a letter saying that it pertained "prospectively to petitions that have not yet been filed". Administration officials gave interviews over the weekend which muddled the message and many companies sent notices to their employees who were out of the country telling them to return to the US immediately.
H1B visas are skilled worker visas. They are heavily used by American corporations to bring foreign workers (often from India) to the US to work in tech positions as coders, system administration, database administrators and other key information technology positions. Stats from the Biden Administration indicated that 400,000 H1B applications were approved in 2024 alone and 73% of those applications were for workers from India, about 50% of whom hold masters degrees or higher.
The H1B application requires a statement that the company has been unable to find a citizen for the position. The normal fee had been about $1,200 total. An expedited application required a $3,000 payment to process the application within 15 days. The H1B visa is valid for 3 years. While the worker is on a visa, the employee and employer are required to pay payroll taxes, including Medicare and Social Security, however the foreign worker is not eligible to apply for Medicare or claim Social Security benefits, now or in the future.
If companies offshore the positions and have these workers work from India, they are not required to obtain a visa and the employees are not required to pay payroll taxes. We are already seeing companies like Deloitte, Dell Services and WiPro setting up sweatshops in India where workers are paid $300-$800 per month to do jobs that a US worker would be paid $80,000-$150,000 to do.


The White House sought to clarify the proclamation on Saturday, but many companies remained cautious. “We are still flying in somewhat foggy conditions,” one attorney said.
www.nytimes.com