The United States needs more skilled workers to ensure the future prosperity, vitality, and security of the United States. However, the new presidential proclamation to limit legal, skills-based immigration is likely to have the opposite effect.
The proclamation would impose a $100,000 fee for the H-1B, a temporary visa for skilled workers with at least a bachelor’s degree. H-1B workers are primarily known for their role in the technology industry, but visa holders also work in health care or as architects, engineers, and teachers. Nearly three-quarters of H-1B holders were born in India.
Employers will pay this one-time fee, which is significantly higher than the previous fees. Applicants paid $215 to register for the lottery and employers paid $780 to sponsor the visa petition. Additional fees varied, but were nowhere near the new six figure fee. Premium processing, for example, was raised to $2805 in 2023. Of course, not all companies can afford to pay this higher fee, leaving many to rethink their hiring and recruitment plans, particularly those that rely on H-1B visas to hire people with specific and critically needed skills. The administration suggests this change will “put American workers first”.
Immigration policy should be designed to ensure American businesses have the labor they need to be productive and help the United States compete in the global market. But firms with international presence who have to forgo H-1B workers are likely to hire workers abroad and offshore more operations in response – often to competitors like China.
Only 85,000 H-1B visas are available each year, and, in many years, the demand for skilled foreign workers outstrips the available supply of visas. These visas are renewable, and a holder may try to adjust their status to a green card – which allows the holder to live and work permanently in the United States – if an employer will sponsor them.
The Immigration and Nationality Act allows a president to suspend entry of noncitizens, such as H-1B visa holders, if he finds that their admission would be detrimental to the interests of the United States. This provision, Section 212(f), previously has been used by the Trump Administration as part of the travel bans imposed earlier in the second term. In the latest proclamation, the administration is utilizing Section 212(f) to prohibit entry of new H-1B visa holders unless the $100,000 fee is paid.
Like many executive actions on immigration, this policy is likely to be challenged in court. Most fees related to immigration must be created through legislation or the formal rulemaking process with a public notice and comment period. A presidential proclamation doesn’t have to follow these rules – but may not be sufficient to legally change the fee.
Skilled workers from around the world have long sought to come to the United States, and their presence has benefitted our economy and our communities for generations. If we turn them away, our competitors and adversaries around the world would be only too happy to pick them up. And that will hurt America’s long-term prosperity.
