--- title: Americans Will Pay the Price for H-1B Fees description: Prohibitive fees on sponsoring H-1B workers will lead us to a less productive, less innovative, and weaker country, writes Ben Zweig. canonical: https://time.com/7327602/trump-h1b-visa-fees/ author: Ben Zweig article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-10-23T10:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T08:12:21.609Z article:section: Ideas og:title: American Workers Will Pay the Price for New H-1B Visa Fees og:description: Prohibitive fees on sponsoring H-1B workers will lead us to a less productive and weaker country, writes Ben Zweig. og:url: https://time.com/7327602/trump-h1b-visa-fees/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0fcc33a2f7b8b57/6998cae79fbc7c3f67d9a8aa/trump-executive-order-h1b-visa.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: President Trump Signs Executive Order At The White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: American Workers Will Pay the Price for New H-1B Visa Fees twitter:description: Prohibitive fees on sponsoring H-1B workers will lead us to a less productive and weaker country, writes Ben Zweig. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0fcc33a2f7b8b57/6998cae79fbc7c3f67d9a8aa/trump-executive-order-h1b-visa.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  IDEAS Time ideas # American Workers Will Pay the Price for New H-1B Visa Fees > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=e091ccae-39ee-4bc4-8076-e0e63913bf73&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Trump Signs Proclamation that Imposes $100K Annual Fee for H-1B Visa Applications [Watch (HLS stream): Trump Signs Proclamation that Imposes $100K Annual Fee for H-1B Visa Applications](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qJFNax0W.m3u8) (2:37)  _Published 2025-09-22. The Trump Administration said Friday it would charge companies $100,000 per year for H-1B visas, a move that created uncertainty for current visa holders and will likely hamper the ability of American tech companies to hire skilled workers from around the world._ by [Ben Zweig](https://time.com/author/ben-zweig/) ## Ben Zweig Ben Zweig is the founder of Revelio Labs and author of Job Architecture: Building a Language for Workforce Intelligence. Oct 23, 2025 10:00 AM UTC The Trump Administration said Friday it would charge companies $100,000 per year for H-1B visas, a move that created uncertainty for current visa holders and will likely hamper the ability of American tech companies to hire skilled workers from around the world. by [Ben Zweig](https://time.com/author/ben-zweig/) ## Ben Zweig Ben Zweig is the founder of Revelio Labs and author of Job Architecture: Building a Language for Workforce Intelligence. Oct 23, 2025 10:00 AM UTC The Trump Administration recently announced a $100,000 yearly fee for H-1B visas, the program that allows highly skilled foreign professionals to live and work in the United States. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick [said this fee was created](https://time.com/7319116/h1b-visa-news-trump-rules/), in part, to stop U.S. companies from “bringing in people to take our jobs.” As the founder of a U.S.-based tech company that has proudly sponsored many H-1B visas, I’ve seen how vital this program is to the success of American businesses. The proposed policy would only undermine this, instead pushing American jobs overseas and weakening our global competitiveness. I recently hired a foreign employee to work at my company as a machine learning engineer, supporting the development of our AI-driven software. Her starting salary was $85,000/year. The proposed annual fee would be more than the cost of her salary. Despite being an excellent engineer, paying $100,000 to sponsor her visa would not have been viable or realistic. Those who support the new H-1B visa policy would say that instead of employing a foreign worker, we could have instead hired a U.S. citizen to fill the job. Unfortunately, this would be impossible. There are not enough Americans with the highly specialized technical skills we need to grow as a company. The domestic labor market has been [shrinking since 2010](https://www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram/hayek-program-podcast/michael-clemens-trillion-dollar-question-immigration), only propped up by migrant workers needed to keep our economy growing. This is especially true in technical fields that require higher education. Without the H-1B program, our company’s growth will be severely limited. This reality is shared by thousands of American businesses throughout the country. ## The demand factor of immigrant labor My support of H-1B visa employees is not only because of their contributions to my company—though they are a great asset—but because the program itself helps strengthen the American economy and create more jobs for everyone in this country. Most pundits, when considering the influence of immigration on the labor markets, only think about migrant workers as increasing the supply of labor, rather than also affecting demand. To economists, this is known as the [“lump of labor fallacy.”](https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/page-one-economics/2020/11/02/examining-the-lump-of-labor-fallacy-using-a-simple-economic-model) The argument is that when migrant workers come to work in the U.S., it expands the supply of labor and crowds out opportunities for domestic workers. Yet that argument ignores the fact that labor markets are a function of both supply and demand, both of which are positively affected by people. Our economy does not have a fixed number of jobs, but a demand for labor that is a function of innovation, growth, and entrepreneurship. All of these factors are bolstered by people who contribute to the creation of new businesses and the growth of existing ones. Immigrant labor—especially immigrant labor that comes to the U.S. on an H-1B visa—influences labor demand more than labor supply. A domestic American worker is more likely to be hired by an immigrant than to have their job “taken” by an immigrant. TIME [recently reported](https://time.com/7319507/h1b-trump-tech-innovation-ai/) on the positive influences of immigrants on our economy, particularly in tech fields like my own. Giovanni Peri, an economics professor at the University of California, Davis, told TIME that, “Foreign STEM workers have been an incredible engine of growth.” More patents are [filed in states with more H-1B visa holders](https://itif.org/publications/2025/01/13/h1b-visa-workers-contribute-number-issued-patents-united-states/), which can lead to the creation of more businesses and, in turn, job opportunities. Studies have also shown that high-skilled immigrants lead to [more productivity without job displacement](https://www.cato.org/blog/dont-ban-h-1b-workers-they-are-worth-their-weight-patents). One study quantified the specific gains to American workers’ salaries from better tech support as a result of the increased productivity of [Indian immigrants on the H-1B program](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract%5Fid=2968147): over $400 million. The visa fee could also lead to a decline in our overall workforce, which will have far-reaching implications that will be difficult to predict. Almost 90% of our [labor workforce growth](https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2024/10/16/immigrants-will-be-americas-only-source-of-labor-force-growth/) since 2019 came from immigrants. Without more people, and particularly the highly skilled people that the H-1B visa offers, we will not be able to support an aging American population. Using [current projections](https://nfap.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Immigrants-And-Americas-Labor-Force-Growth.DAY-OF-RELEASE.October-2024.pdf), our labor force growth will be completely dependent on immigration starting in 2052. The H-1B program helps bring the best talent in the world to America. These individuals are young, highly skilled, and employable by definition. Their primary impact on our economy is to make it more productive; they contribute to local economies and the tax base, further spurring economic growth that can lead to more jobs. Any disruption in the operation of the H1-B program will significantly reduce growth and harm the American economy. ## A choice we don't want to make A few years ago, I had an exceptional employee named Praxal Patel. He was building an incredible career here in the US, but when his girlfriend, Anjali Agrawal, who was working at IBM, didn’t win the H-1B lottery, he made the difficult decision to return to India with her. Together, Praxal and Anjali founded [Routed AI](https://www.routedai.com/), a company that has quickly become one of India’s hottest AI startups. They are hiring people and raising money. Patel would have loved to stay and build his company here, and the U.S. economy would have benefited immensely from his innovation and drive. Instead, that engine of growth now powers another country. Because remote work is easier than ever, the visa fee will likely lead to the exact opposite effect that the government wants: Increased flows of American dollars to other countries. When companies are forced to choose between hiring someone remotely in a foreign country for lower amounts than domestically, they will make the obvious business choice of [investing in workers abroad](https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4715). My company will be forced to do the same if the policy does not change. We will have to start seeking out foreign workers in foreign countries, rather than bringing them here to contribute to America’s tax base and local economies. Many qualified workers will choose to move offshore and work from there to avoid the visa fee. Employees like our new machine learning engineer will be able to keep working productively, but their salary will benefit another country. I do not expect their productivity or ability to contribute to the company to meaningfully decrease. The only thing that will suffer is the community where they currently live, which will lose a productive worker with a high-paying job. There are too few programs in the U.S. like the H-1B visa, where prime-age productive workers can contribute to the economy effectively and legally. Immigration reform that targets the most productive and successful programs is misguided and devoid of economic sense. Prohibitive fees on sponsoring H-1B workers will lead us to a less productive, less innovative, and weaker country. [TIME Ideas](https://www.time.com/ideas) hosts the world's leading voices, providing commentary on events in news, society, and culture. We welcome outside contributions. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors. ## Transcript [00:00] One of the most abused visa systems in [00:02] our current immigration system has been the H-1b nonimmigrant visa program. [00:07] This is supposed to allow [00:08] highly skilled laborers who work in fields that Americans don't work in, [00:13] to come into the United States of America. [00:15] We need workers. We need great workers. [00:17] And this pretty much ensures that that's what's going to happen. [00:20] I think, Sean, do you agree with that? [00:22] Well, there are $100,000 per year. [00:26] So the whole idea is no more will these big tech companies [00:30] or other big companies train foreign workers? [00:34] They have to pay the government $100,000. [00:36] Then they have to pay the employee. [00:38] So it's just not economic. [00:40] If you're going to train somebody, [00:42] you're going to train one of [00:44] the recent graduates from one of the great universities across our land. [00:48] Train Americans. [00:50] Stop bringing in people to take our jobs. [00:52] That's the policy here. [00:54] $100,000 a year for H-1b visas and all of the big companies are on board. [01:01] We've spoken to them about the gold card. They love. [01:03] It. They love it. They really love it. They need it. [01:06] H-1bs are sometimes used by people already in the country, [01:09] legally on other visas or student visas. [01:11] Does this apply to them or to renewals? [01:13] Or does it only apply to people applying for the first time from abroad? [01:17] Renewals. [01:19] First times the company needs to decide do they want? [01:24] Is that person valuable enough to have $100,000 a year payment to the government? [01:30] Or they should head home and they should go hire an American? [01:35] The whole idea it's annual and it's for total. [01:38] It can be a total of six years. [01:40] So $100,000 a year. [01:41] So either the person is very valuable to the company and America, [01:46] or they're going to depart and the company is going to hire an American. [01:51] And that's the point of immigration. [01:53] Hire Americans and make sure the people coming in are the top, top people. [01:59] Stop the nonsense of letting people just come into [02:01] this country on these visas that were given away for free. [02:05] President is crystal clear, [02:07] valuable people only for America. [02:11] Stop the nonsense. [02:12] And remember the country. [02:15] To America. [02:16] The country would rather not have to pay $100,000, but they'd rather. [02:22] How do you do that? You hire Americans so there's an incentive to hire American. [02:26] But there may be instances where it's better off [02:28] doing it through expertise or whatever it may be, [02:31] but they're both unbelievable, [02:33] whether it's the gold card or or anything else that we talked about today. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7327602/trump-h1b-visa-fees/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7327602/trump-h1b-visa-fees/"},"headline":"American Workers Will Pay the Price for New H-1B Visa Fees","datePublished":"2025-10-23T10:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-19T08:12:21.609Z","description":"Prohibitive fees on sponsoring H-1B workers will lead us to a less productive, less innovative, and weaker country, writes Ben Zweig.","url":"https://time.com/7327602/trump-h1b-visa-fees/","keywords":["Work"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0fcc33a2f7b8b57/6998cae79fbc7c3f67d9a8aa/trump-executive-order-h1b-visa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Zweig","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ben-zweig/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0fcc33a2f7b8b57/6998cae79fbc7c3f67d9a8aa/trump-executive-order-h1b-visa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Signs Executive Order At The White House","caption":"President Trump Signs Executive Order At The White House","creditText":"Andrew Harnik—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/work/","name":"Work"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7327602/trump-h1b-visa-fees/","name":"American Workers Will Pay the Price for New H-1B Visa Fees"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Trump Signs Proclamation that Imposes $100K Annual Fee for H-1B Visa Applications","description":"The Trump Administration said Friday it would charge companies $100,000 per year for H-1B visas, a move that created uncertainty for current visa holders and will likely hamper the ability of American tech companies to hire skilled workers from around the world.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/qJFNax0W/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2025-09-22T15:55:03.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qJFNax0W.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/7327602/trump-h1b-visa-fees/","duration":"PT2M37S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/7327602/trump-h1b-visa-fees/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```