The U.S. authorities introduced new restrictions on the H-1B visa program, saying it has been “intentionally exploited to switch, somewhat than complement, American employees with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.”
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The brand new coverage impacts corporations searching for to rent new H-1B visa employees. They have to pay an additional $100,000 per applicant, beginning September 21, 2025, for the subsequent 12 months.
The H-1B program permits corporations to rent overseas expert employees for specialised occupations. Many main tech corporations, together with Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon, rely closely on this system. H-1B visas are already expensive, usually starting from $1,700 to $8,500 per employee relying on firm measurement and processing choices, far beneath the brand new $100,000 payment.
The White Home mentioned the brand new $100,000 payment applies solely to new H-1B candidates and doesn’t have an effect on present visa holders, even when they’re touring outdoors the U.S.
Underneath the brand new guidelines, corporations searching for to rent H-1B employees should pay $100,000 per petition, except the Secretary of Homeland Safety determines that the hiring is within the nationwide curiosity. The U.S. Departments of State and Homeland Safety will coordinate to implement the brand new restrictions, and the Secretary of Labor will revise prevailing wage ranges to raised shield American employees.
“The big-scale alternative of American employees by systemic abuse of this system has undermined each our financial and nationwide safety,” the White Home mentioned in a proclamation. They cited examples within the expertise sector, the place some IT corporations have laid off hundreds of U.S. workers whereas bringing in H-1B employees at considerably decrease wages. “One software program firm was accepted for over 5,000 H-1B employees in FY 2025; across the similar time, it introduced layoffs of greater than 15,000 American workers,” the proclamation states.
The U.S. authorities experiences that the share of overseas employees in STEM fields has greater than doubled since 2000, with laptop and math occupations seeing the overseas workforce develop from 17.7% to 26.1%. They warned that these tendencies make it more durable for American graduates to search out jobs and depress wages, particularly in entry-level positions. “Amongst faculty graduates ages 22 to 27, laptop science and laptop engineering majors are going through a few of the highest unemployment charges within the nation at 6.1% and seven.5%, respectively,” they mentioned.
The White Home framed the modifications as a measure to prioritize “high-skilled and high-paid aliens” and forestall abuses that threaten each the home workforce and nationwide safety.
“The excessive numbers of comparatively low-wage employees within the H-1B program undercut the integrity of this system and are detrimental to American employees’ wages and labor alternatives,” the proclamation reads.
