Posted on 09/19/2025 7:33:27 PM PDT by marcusmaximus
-snip-
Foreign workers, starting September 21, can’t enter the U.S. on an H-1B visa unless their employer’s petition (the paperwork requesting the visa) includes an extra $100,000 payment to the federal government. This fee must be renewed and paid annually, according to United States Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.
-snip-
Nationally, there are approximately 730,000 active H-1B holders as of early 2025.
-snip-
Washington currently ranks 4th nationally for H-1B activity. The state, particularly the Seattle metropolitan area, is a major hub for the U.S. tech industry, with companies like Amazon and Microsoft relying heavily on H-1B visas to hire skilled foreign workers in fields like software engineering and AI.
The Technology Sector is an estimated $180 billion industry in Washington state with approximately 25,838 Labor Condition Applications (a metric for H-1B positions) in 2025—Amazon alone secured over 10,000 approvals and Microsoft more than 5,000. This concentration of H-1B visa holders means that Washington state could face a disproportionate effect because of the Proclamation compared to the national average.
-snip-
This new annual $100,000 fee, per H-1B visa worker, imposed on employers could possibly even impact the housing sector as H-1B visa workers who are laid off because of this new cost burden on employers, return to their country of origin. However, college graduates and new homebuyers may benefit.
(Excerpt) Read more at lynnwoodtimes.com ...
Hire Americans, then there’s no fee.
$100k a year is peanuts to some tech firms. So be it.
No comment yet from Microsoft, Google and the rest. Will they pick a fight with President Trump?
Time for me to demand a raise.
Washington state votes for Democrats last time I checked is there karma in this?
I earned a Computer science Degree from a Seattle area University.
I’ve seen what happens up close in that industry.
There are two problems mainly;
#1 Employers don’t want to pay a fair wage.
#2 The racist bastards that become managers
don’t want to hire White people.
We don’t like living with twenty people
in a two bedroom house.
Full disclosure; I’m not monetarily rich, however I retired
at age 55 on 5 Acres in Hawaii, with two houses and a large
workshop.
Nobody ever gave me a break due to my race.
They paid me for my discipline and what I learned
as I went to school as I worked for them.
I never stopped going to school till I retired.
Give it a rest, jerkusmaximus. Are you gay for Modi?
“Amazon alone secured over 10,000 approvals”
I’m having trouble figuring out why they would need that many.
India hoes mad.
You're no fan of President Trump. You took the day off Free Republic when he won, and didn't celebrate with rest of us.
I see no problem with him posting this article.
He posts a lot of articles. I assume he signed up for article posting notices from a lot of sites.
$100,000 per worker per year.
No it's not. There's also a provision regarding how much the worker needs to be paid - at least $150,000 per year.
Very few companies will do that, when they can hire American for less.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4341647/posts?page=12#12
You’ve been on FR for ten years, and you don’t recognize a troll when you see one?
A lot of that going around among the FR neocons.
I do favor trimming back the H-1B program. No more imports except for persons paid at least a 20% premium to their degree and years of experience.
For each employer: total H-1B salaries < FICA tax paid in a prior tax year going back up to four years
That would limit H-1Bs to about 8% of employees.
American kids need to sure they have a future before signing for student loans.
Is the fee just to be able to hire a H1-B visa workers or $100k per H1-B person accepted?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.