If you are an H1B applicant, that means you !
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/trump-to-add-100-000-fee-for-skilled-worker-visa-applicants/ar-AA1MUWoU?ocid=msedgntp&pc=w099&cvid=68cdb285350d407cb225c50fc5f92a3a&ei=24
Are there any repercussions for IBM executives who hire H1B people to do the needful ? Or is it not so needful now ?
Great news, it’s about time!!
@a3 I agree. The main issue is outsourcing, not H1B. Without outsourcing, I wouldn't lose my job in IBM this year !
This is great news in terms of addressing some of the Great H1B scandal. However I ddid read it would be exempt if the roles where seen to be in the national interest (so they still have exemptions that can be abused, and will be abused)
However this probably not bringing back jobs to Americans. As I don't read anywhere any rules to limit how much out of profits goes to shareholders vs investment in workflorce. So Companies will find other means of cutting back. In the short term just mean that some products \ services will get worse, until the companies figure out the next low cost measure to meet the requirements. Until you force companies to spend X-X out of profits on workforce investment, companies will continue to make savings and cut costs as much as they can
Go to 5:45 in the video, as it's not noted in the accompanying article for some reason: Cohn is on-board with the EO.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gary-cohn-ibm-trump-labor-market-face-the-nation-09-21-2025/
@j7 you might be right about the offshore jobs, but I wouldn't count on your argument 100%.
Greed has it's limits. At some point, the buck stops and the tables turn (or should I say overturn?). Or your company goes up in smoke as it happening with IBM. Indians have not brought any new business other than puffery and book knowledge. That's why jobs might go there, but no new business is being created or generated. Maybe stuff for the mainframe crew but certainly not AI where IBM is lagging way behind (except in Cramer's shallow and clueless mind).
And McKinsey is predicting more job losses with AI
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careers/ai-job-risk-mckinsey-predicts-job-losses-with-ai/vi-AA1MUXRM?ocid=finance-verthp-feeds
All this does is encourage more off shoring. H1b visas aren’t to WORK for IBM - they’re to work for IBM PHYSICALLY in the US. If you work for IBM FROM INDIA this wouldn’t impact you at all. This won’t prevent - in fact, it will probably speed up – the relocation of jobs to India and other slums.
Perhaps Modi should give his new BBFs in Russia, China dn NoKo a call and have them provide jobs for their millions of workers going around the globe taking jobs from Western economies and rich ME countries.
See how it works for him...
And India is now trying to play up "humanitarian crisis" with the $100,000 fees for H1Bs. I have no sympathy for their self-made crisis. They made hay while the sun shone on them for more than 20+ years while Americans lost their jobs en masse. It's time for the Indians to pay the piper - Trump and the US government. Same goes for big corporations. I'm sure they will find ways to try and avoid paying but it's obvious that they are now sitting up to take notice in a very long time.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyll7dlg7lo
https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-to-add-100-000-fee-to-h-1b-visas-e41ffe48
Trump Adds $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee and Rolls Out $1 Million ‘Gold Card’ --
Moves aim to upend current immigration system, increase revenue and promote hiring Americans
By: Natalie Andrews, Michelle Hackman and Brian Schwartz
Updated Sept. 19, 2025 7:43 pm ET
WASHINGTON—President Trump announced a move to dramatically reshape the nation’s immigration system, attaching hefty new fees to H-1B visas and rolling out a “gold card” for those willing to pay $1 million to secure U.S. residency.
A new $100,000 annual fee for H-1B visa applications is intended to crack down on a system the Trump administration says has been used by tech companies to avoid hiring American workers. Currently, applicants for the H-1B visa must pay a small fee to enter into the lottery system, and the winners of that lottery pay a larger fee to submit their full applications for vetting.
“We’re having people come in, people that in many cases are very successful or whatever, as opposed to walking over the borders,” Trump said in the Oval Office as he signed the proclamation changing the H-1B program.
An executive order signed by Trump on Friday rolls out a gold card available to people who pay $1 million to the U.S. Treasury. Corporations can sponsor an individual for $2 million. The visas are expedited, and the Department of Homeland Security will still vet the individuals, which will cost applicants $15,000. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that this visa will replace other similar employment-based paths to permanent residency programs within a month.
The new gold card would use existing green card categories known as EB-1 and EB-2, which people can qualify for if the government determines they have “extraordinary ability” in their fields. Lutnick said 80,000 of these visas would be available, down from 140,000 employment-based visas that are annually awarded now. He said other employment-based visa categories would be suspended in order for the new system to work.
“We’ll be taking in hundreds of billions of dollars,” Trump said. “We’re going to take that money and we’re going to reduce taxes, we’re going to reduce debt.”
The H-1B program has put Trump at odds with U.S. tech companies, the leaders of which have met with Trump frequently in his second term. Amazon.com, Google and Tesla are among the biggest users of the visas, which let companies bring foreign workers to the U.S. on a temporary basis. The workers overwhelmingly come from India and fill jobs in such fields as software development, computer science and engineering.
The goal of implementing the higher fees, Lutnick said, was to make sure corporations “hire Americans and make sure the people that come into the country are top, top people.”
H-1B fees are typically paid for by employers sponsoring visa applicants. It currently costs $215 to enter an applicant into the lottery, and more than $5,000 in fees to file a visa application—without factoring in lawyers’ fees.
The administration is also exploring a “platinum card” program, for a $5 million fee, which would allow an individual to live in the country for up to 270 days a year without being subject to tax on non-U. S. income. Congress would need to approve the program.
It isn’t clear whether the White House’s latest actions will face legal challenges. Typically, new visa fees must either be set by Congress or be levied through formal regulations, which first undergo months of public notice and comment.
Adam Kovacevich, head of pro-tech group Chamber of Progress, said the increased fees on H-1B visas would likely stop many companies from using them, especially smaller companies with limited resources. The new policy could also make it harder for the U.S. to compete with China in developing technologies like artificial intelligence.
“I strongly suspect the administration is going to realize in the coming days and weeks that this policy clashes with his stated goal of winning the AI race,” he said.
The debate over the H-1B system has split members of Trump’s administration and his backers. Some aligned with the MAGA movement say that it has allowed primarily Indian men to take lucrative tech and engineering jobs away from Americans, while more business-minded Republicans—including David Sacks, Trump’s AI czar—argue it is crucial for businesses to recruit the best global talent.
“Tech companies are on board, we’ve spoken to them,” Lutnick said of Friday’s moves.
The visa program lost one of its most vocal backers in Elon Musk when he left the administration in the spring. Some immigration officials, including Joseph Edlow, who heads up the agency responsible for issuing H-1B and other visas, have been more skeptical.
Under Edlow, the agency, called U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, had been preparing to release a new regulation that would have given preference to visa applicants with higher salaries. But that regulation had been stalled by the White House, according to people familiar with the matter.
Created by Congress in 1990, the H-1B program is the main pathway to the U.S. for highly skilled foreign workers. Visa holders can eventually become eligible to apply for green cards, which would let them stay in the country indefinitely.
The program is vastly oversubscribed. Companies file hundreds of thousands of petitions for the visas each year, and new visas are capped at 85,000 a year. A lottery system helps decide who gets one. Employees of universities and other nonprofits are generally exempt from the cap.
There are roughly 700,000 people on H-1B visas currently living in the U.S., according to a National Foundation of American Policy analysis of government data. Many of those have been living in the country for more than a decade, waiting in a yearslong backlog for a green card.
Respectfully, under H1B status, you have a 60-day grace period to find a new sponsor, change to another nonimmigrant status, or leave the U.S. and return after a new petition is approved. If you are unable to find a new sponsor, you can apply to change your status to a B1/B2 visitor visa to remain in the country LAWFULLY for up to 6 months while you search for a new job. Return ticket? Reimbursed can depend on the circumstances of your own termination. The law says it is the reasonable cost of a one-way economy class ticket to the employee's last foreign address, and the employer is not obligated to pay for the transportation costs of dependent family members or personal belongings.
Respectfully again, your post here appears to be quite uninformed, whinny and entitled. You were not a legal permanent resident or a citizen of this country. Why would we have to pay you unemployment benefits exactly? Yes, you have to pay taxes, what makes you think you don't have to?
One important point, apparently you don't know about ALL the taxed India makes foreigner nationals pay when they provide services to an Indian company or work in India? That's why an agreement had to be negotiated and signed: to eliminate the DOUBLE DIPPING (and onerous, complicated bureaucracy) that India loves to charge for.
"They didn't give me this they didn't give me that" (and the tone)... Unbelievable.
Let me rephrase things for you, "I had the privilege to work abroad, I wasn't brilliant, so when layoffs came, I was fired, but I will always cherish the experience, because when I go back home I can say that I worked in the US and that could lead me to better opportunities" (which I have seen happen many times before).
Why do I find this funny ... and satisfying?
"Spike in airfares, panic at airports in India as H-1B visa fee surges"
"Airfares to the United States have surged sharply. Direct flight prices skyrocketed, with many Indians returning home for Durga Puja now forced to rethink travel plans amid the looming September 21 deadline."
https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/india/spike-in-airfares-panic-at-airports-in-india-as-h-1b-visa-fee-surges-m29g8emr
Hindustan Times: "How Indians reacted to Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee move: ‘American dream ki-led’"
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/how-indians-reacted-to-trumps-100-000-h-1b-visa-fee-move-american-dream-ki-led-101758357271390.html
Maybe you need to call ICE and give them all these helpful details, particularly if you are still stuck here on your expired H1B visa. They could give you $1000 to go home as a parting gift too.
Sounds like someone from IBM (or a similar company) could be sneaking off with a lot of cash under the table from unemployment insurance. Maybe Trump is getting bribed too, who really knows ? So, call the US Labor department for the unemployment insurance issues. I'm sure they will be happy to help close the loopholes with unemployment insurance.
Most of all, tell your friends and neighbors (particularly those on the IBM India friends and family plan) not to show up in the US. Not sure if Canada has got an open door policy any more either. Looks like McKinsey and IBM need to look at plans B, C and F for outsourcing, whatever those are.
@ak
i'd rather see those useless skillless parasites
have their assets reclaimed
they took from more promising useful people
I am a former H1B worker. After being layoff, the company is required to pay the return flight. Never happened. It was not IBM.
As a H1B, one pays into EDD.
The moment one gets unemployed, one needs to leave the country and of course not claim unemployment insurance.
Great for the unemployment insurance.
Offshoring jobs to India is technically an Indian export of services to the US. Needs a 200%+ tariff immediately. Also, services companies like WITCH, IBM, Accenture, etc should not be allowed a single client facing H1B or offshore resource, not a single one.
We can still charge AK and team of escorts in taxes and other measures where it makes it too expensive to keep shutting down IBM in the US and move it all to India.
Even if IBM slowly disappears, still, why move entire American corporations there?
Yes, and we also need to make sure they don't turn around and hire in India or Latin America or whatever instead.
It's exactly what AK is doing, transferring every single job / every job opening / every job opportunity to India.
Let me tweak what you said:
Instead of "Loophole may be, fine, we don't bring them here, we just get the more people directly or indirectly via SI or outsourcing partner in India."
this "Let's prevent them from using loopholes, if the H1B door closes, let's also close the other obvious door, we also need to prevent them from hiring people directly or indirectly (via SI or outsourcing partner) in India itself."
Good?
In IBM's case, it won't matter.
It's problems go much deeper than simple labor arbitrage. They're out of every business except for legacy products, and have nothing in the pipeline. The management and shareholders see no value in anything except cash, so they've sold out every part of the company except for mainframes, a few extra hardware groups and legacy software.
Hiring H1-B for $100k? $500k? They're shipping everything to India, so nothing will change.
Maybe some tariffs will help, but what products do we actually import from India?
@a2 for companies like IBM and McKinsey who have been doing this H1B garbage for more than 20+ years it should be at least US $500,000 or US 1 Million per employee brought on an H1B visa. That will make the executive crooks sit up and take notice.
Loophole may be, fine, we don't bring them here, we just get the more people directly or indirectly via SI or outsourcing partner in India.
Yay! Now he needs to go after outsourcing, offshoring, near-shoring (India, Latin America...) AND keep an eye on layoffs here while AK hires in India. "AK, why can't you find the resource here, explain and justify yourself?"
Save the American middle class.
Step in the right direction. Prefer it to be $250K.