The Trump administration plans to make it much more expensive to bring foreign workers to the U.S. to do specialized jobs under the H-1B visa program.
H-1B visas allow American companies to employ foreign workers who have particular skills. It’s particularly popular among tech companies. Texas has the second-highest number of H-1B holders, after California.
But it appears that the program may have fewer new applicants after the Trump administration officials added a $100,000 fee to apply for an H-1B visa – more than 100 times the current cost.
Dany Bahar, an associate professor of practice of international and public affairs at Brown University, spoke to Texas Standard about some of the broader economic effects of this decision. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: Well, up to now, companies have had to pay about $1,000 for an H-1B application. Now that the fee is 100 times that amount, what do you think that means for the future of the program?
Dany Bahar: Well, it’s a way to shoot yourself from the foot, because essentially what it’s doing, it’s keeping foreign talent away from the United States.
It’s telling people “do not come,” but a very specific group of people – people who bring talent that is very hard to find in the United States. That doesn’t mean that Americans are not talented, but there’s a whole range of talents and different skills – some different know-how – and we all work together to make the economy grow.
Well, let’s back up a little and explain to people what the H-1B visa does, what segments of the economy depend on these visas, and why there is a need to bring in that foreign talent.
The H-1B visa is, let’s start by saying, it’s a very, very small program – up to 85,000 visas every year that are given to people who have been vetted by firms in the United States who were not able to fill those vacancies in the local markets, and therefore they are asking the government through a visa process to let them bring a foreign worker who will be able to to fill that vacancy.
And you would imagine that because it’s a high-skilled visa, so people who went to college and beyond, it’s really all over the economy, but it’s highly concentrated, for instance, on information technology or high-tech industries.
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So is the U.S. capable of producing the workers needed to fill these jobs, or why does the U.S. have to look outside the country?
The question here is, how do you have an economy that is competing globally?
And right now, the U.S. is at a crossroad because the administration itself is trying to revamp manufacturing, is trying make goods that are made in the U.S. competitive to the world. They’re trying to expand and become the leaders in artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, and so on.
So all those are things that you need not only to have factory workers, but to have a talent that can help America produce those goods at a low cost. Because the only way, actually, to export those goods and grow to more markets and to become competitive is to be able to produce at a lower cost. You need this experience and this know-how that sometimes foreigners bring.
The most talented people around the world want to come to the U.S. and work with Americans in making the American economy competitive and strong.
Well, now India sends more H-1B visa-holders to the U.S. than any other country, and we already see a little bit of a difficult relationship between the U.S. and India over various issues. Will this do significant damage to the two countries’ relationship, in your opinion?
Well, it’s hard to point out to what could make relationships difficult with the U.S., because this is not the only measure that the administration has taken, that, in my opinion, isolating the U.S. instead of integrating into the global economy. India also is suffering from quite significant tariff rate that the Trump administration has put on Indian products.
So all this together, yeah, for sure, I think it plays a big role in diplomacy and geopolitics. And as we speak, the leaders of the world are getting together in the United Nations. And maybe this is a topic that will come up.
