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US Gov acknowledges that 100K fee does not apply to existing H-1B visas holders [pdf]
- duxup 1y agoAlso apparently the secretary of state can just wave the fee? Sounds like it's just corruption as a service.
- jandrese 1y agoI’m sure the inspectors general will keep an eye out for this. It would be very bad for the reputation of the administration to have blatant corruption at the top levels.
- cardamomo 1y agoI assume your reply is sarcastic, but just in case, I'll say it directly: this administration does not care whether there is blatant corruption at the top levels, or any other levels for that matter. I'm fact, insofar as it antagonizes liberals, they'll encourage it.
- georgemcbay 1y agoOne of the first things the Trump admin did was fire a lot of the inspectors general, including the one for the State Department. I'd assume the reply you are replying to is being sarcastic specifically in reference to that event. There's currently an (Acting) IG for State as a replacement, but I think its pretty clear how long that job would last for him if he were to actually do it.
- cardamomo 1y agoThank you for reminding me of the IG firings!
- georgemcbay 1y ago> Thank you for reminding me of the IG firings! No problem. With all of the crazy "flooding the zone" things that have happened since it seems like it was like ~9 years ago rather than ~9 months ago.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> sure the inspectors general will keep an eye out for this The dude who runs Homeland Security accepted bags of cash from the FBI [1]. (The case is being dropped. For good and bad reasons.) Meanwhile, DOJ prosecutors are being fired for not following partisan marching orders [2]. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/us/politics/tom-homan-fbi-trump.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/us/politics/tom-homan-fbi... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/us/politics/trump-justice-department-us-attorneys.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/us/politics/trump-justice...
- agildehaus 1y agoIndeed. They'll use this to hurt companies they want to hurt.
- duxup 1y agoAlso trap the companies that are their "friends". Trump isn't above cutting a deal and altering it and continuously making demands.
- klipt 1y agoDarn if only we had some way of knowing a presidential candidate was corrupt. Like if they were charged with multiple felonies for corruption. Or if they were impeached twice for corruption.
- Ygg2 1y ago[flagged]
- FridayoLeary 1y agoIf only the judiciary and house had literally any credibility that people wouldn't suspect the whole thing was politically motivated voters might actually care. At least as far as i can tell they remained magnificently indifferent.
- DaveZale 1y agoOr if they take hundreds of millions from "special" lobbyists to enable land grabs overseas
- trhway 1y agoOne can wonder how people like DPR or that Nikola guy got pardoned. I'm pretty sure that the President didn't know about all those people until some aide or a relative brought it up. Now, how to make such an aide or a relative to bring it up before the President? May it help to pay $5M to join one of those lunches at Mar-a-Lago where one can meet such an aide or a relative and drop the name of somebody so deserving a Presidential pardon?
- heavyset_go 1y agoDPR's pardoning was the administration throwing a bone to libertarian influencers who campaigned for his release.
- FridayoLeary 1y agoSounds worse. The big companies won't have a problem and anyway can afford it. Smaller industries will have a much harder time getting attention. To be frank the H1b scheme seems slightly dodgy to me anyway. But i only learned about it 30 minutes ago.
- JohnTHaller 1y agoCorruption-as-a-service is a feature, not a bug, of this administration. And it works across immigration, technology, crypto, etc.
- Detrytus 1y agoOK, but this is just an USCIS guidance to how they are going to interpret the proclamation when approving petitions. Important thing would be to have similar thing from CBP on how they are going to treat H-1B individuals at border crossings. Yes, I know this memo above says "The proclamation does not impact the ability of any current visa holder to travel to or from the United States", but that means nothing, because it is coming from USCIS which has no authority here (CBP has).
- Izikiel43 1y agoAh I didn’t consider that, great point.
- trallnag 1y agoA lot of people fell again for Trump
- cmxch 1y agoOr the program requires more teeth to mitigate all adverse citizen impacts.
- Izikiel43 1y agoWhat was written in the proclamation and what they are saying doesn’t match, at least until this uscis announcement. Between a legal document and a saying by a government official, I will take the legal paper.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- FridayoLeary 1y agoI read an article on cnn and i'm slightly confused. Is the fee 100k 300k or 1 million? Either way those are insane figures. Can anyone tell me what the fees have been historically and what the fees are in similar countries? Edit: i read up a bit more on it and i'm unimpressed. Apparently only 65 to 85 thousand of these visas are granted a year and about half of them go to about 5 companies (amazon, microsoft etc) , who can treat these employees however they like, because if they lose their jobs they face deportation.
- papercrane 1y agoIt's 100k a year. H1B are normally valid for 3 years, so that's where the 300k comes from. The $1M figure is for the "Trump Gold Card" visa, which is unrelated to the H1B program.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- xphos 1y agoI think the E.O wording says a 100K for an appliciant to enter the lottery and they'd hold that money I am assuming until you won, what happens if you don't win unclear? But I think this is all horrible law making. E.O. are not effective leadership or law building because its so underspecified and rush and haphazard. Its a shame that we can't have a sensible immigrantion reform and it is behavior like this that makes me feel republicans simply don't care about immigrantion reform just vibes. How they are doing it is simply unserious and punitive but short sighted. This is simply going to push people away from coming to the US and we will see more and more robust tech competition with laws like this. Like them or hate them H1B visas are a major brain drain on all of the nations the US wants to compete with which is good for us not bad. Tech workers are not hurting in the salary department.
- OutOfHere 1y agoPlease stop spreading the unsubstantiated rumor that it's 100K a year. It's not. It's for the lifetime of the visa which is 3-6 years, potentially longer, subject to employment.
- bearjaws 1y agoAnyone still working in this government must be miserable. President tweets something Friday afternoon and you probably had no idea.
- 5555624 1y ago> Anyone still working in this government must be miserable. Depending on where they work, that might be the case. I know a number of government employees and I wouldn't describe any of them as "miserable." Maybe a little griping about the end of telework -- they were already back in the office three days a week -- but, otherwise they seem no different than a year ago. (That includes concerns about a government shutdown; but, those concerns are directed at Congress.)
- pfannkuchen 1y agoInitial media reporting once again mimics headless chicken.
- apical_dendrite 1y agoNo - the initial reporting accurately reflected what was in the proclamation. The proclamation did not exclude people already on H1B visas. That's why Microsoft and other huge companies were telling their employees not to leave the US or to get back to the US within 24 hours. This is the administration doing cleanup because they either screwed up drafting the proclamation, or they got so much pushback that they had to backtrack.
- Izikiel43 1y agoYes, that’s the weird thing, they could have specified this in the proclamation that it only applies for next years lottery starting March next year, or uscis could have changed the fees to charge the money for new petitions, which happens next year. They did neither.
- apical_dendrite 1y agoIt's extremely typical of this administration to move fast and do very sloppy work, with very little consideration of the consequences of their actions. There are many examples. DOGE repeatedly fired and then had to scramble to re-hire people either because they didn't realize that they were firing people who did critical jobs (security for transporting nuclear materials for instance) or because they just blatantly broke the law and the courts issued injunctions.
- sumedh 1y ago> It's extremely typical of this administration to move fast and do very sloppy work Isnt that Silicon Valley's mantra.
- Izikiel43 1y ago
- mrtksn 1y agoIt's impossible to know that for sure, these are not procedures based on open discussion and debate. The administration previously changed policy on undocumented workers in agriculture and hospitality a few times based on the social media reaction of far right influencers, business stakeholders and political organizations. On 4chan some are trying to organize mass plane ticket reservation to prevent people who are abroad from coming back "in time". So who knows, maybe the newly clarified situation catches up with the far-right influencers and they force a change in the current position and another clarification that says that this fee is for everybody. Edit: Well, actually this makes it open public discussion over live implementation :)
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> these are not procedures based on open discussion and debate Or law. If anyone bothered challenging them under the APA, they’d almost all be found illegal. I get the companies being cowards. But where is the ACLU? Why aren’t cases being sponsored on behalf of victims of this childish autocracy that none of these rules followed the Administrative Procedures Act’s process? Does no stage AG want to stand up to a shakedown?
- jmward01 1y agodonate to them
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> donate to them They’re literally not fighting a fight I want them to fight, nor making any indication they want to. That translates into me looking for someone else to donate to.
- lurk2 1y ago> If anyone bothered challenging them under the APA, they’d almost all be found illegal. Why?
- 1y ago
- whateveracct 1y agothis is what happens when you're so bad at writing legislation
- delichon 1y agoIt's a presidential proclamation, not legislation.
- whateveracct 1y agopedantry - the point is the proclamation has ramifications and was poorly written to the point where this wasn't clear. evidenced by a need to follow up. bush league as always with this administration.
- delichon 1y agoTrump agrees with you that the caring about the distinction between congressional and executive authority is pedantic.
- whateveracct 1y agothat's not what i said tho but yeah he is a bad president who has done huge damage to our nation due to his disrespect for checks and balances
- FridayoLeary 1y agoThat's a bit harsh. The constitution was a very well written document by 18th century standards.
- apical_dendrite 1y agoHN readers are likely most familiar with the tech industry's use of H-1B, but it's also used widely in healthcare, academia, and even by some public K-12 school districts that have trouble filling certain teaching jobs. These are jobs that are badly needed (doctors for rural hospitals for instance) and there will be real consequences for society if we can no longer get the workers to fill them.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- 1oooqooq 1y agoso you're saying it will negatively afect mostly trump supporters? what a surprise
- superdude12 1y agoPay Americans more.
- dang 1y agoRelated: New H-1B visa fee will not apply to existing holders, official says - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45316226 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45316226 - Sept 2025 (66 comments) Microsoft memo advises H1B employees to return immediately if currently abroad - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45314906 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45314906 - Sept 2025 (153 comments) Microsoft has urged its employees on H-1B and H-4 visas to return immediately - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45312877 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45312877 - Sept 2025 (552 comments) The H-1B Visa Program and Its Impact on the U.S. Economy - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45309740 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45309740 - Sept 2025 (52 comments) Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45305845 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45305845 - Sept 2025 (1750 comments)
- ramshanker 1y agoI am happy to have this 100k rule announced. Couldn't be better way to stop the Brain Drain.
- jmpman 1y agoI fully expect my company to perform a large layoff next month. Many of my peers are on H1B, and if this fee applied to them, my company’s calculus on who to layoff would likely change. When I first heard about this fee, I went shopping for a Trump 2028 hat. Now… I’m back to being upset about Kimmel and wondering where those Epstein files are. Once I’m laid off, I’ll have plenty of time to vent.