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).
Between a legal document and a saying by a government official, I will take the legal paper.
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.
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.
"Reuters was not immediately able to establish how the fee would be administered. Lutnick said the visa would cost $100,000 a year for each of the three years of its duration but that the details were "still being considered.""
"Lutnick said on Friday that "all the big companies are on board" with $100,000 a year for H-1B visas. "We've spoken to them," he said."
It sounds terrible if the sole purpose of H-1B is to pay less than the labor is worth.
Of course, this assumes that it actually has to be paid, rather than being used to extort political support.
Paying an exorbitant fee to the government will discourage the activity in the United States.
For academics, it's a global market for talent. There may only be a small number of people in the world who are doing top research in a particular area.
For rural healthcare, if you're a hospital in a very poor, very remote area, and you want to hire say, an anesthesiologist, you have to hire someone who could make very good money working anywhere, but is willing to work at your hospital. $10k is not going to cut it.
Luckily, administrators' salaries and endowments can cover fees, and rural areas are often served by doctors who agree to loan forgiveness programs which help underserved areas.
Source: I worked for a FAANG company as an H-1B worker. They "mistreated" me so much that they sponsored a green card for me. Quotes mean sarcasm, just to be clear - it was a chill job with very good work-life balance and I have never felt mistreated.
Just to clarify, this is true for the L1 visa, which is tied to an employer.
With the h1b, you have 60 days to find another employer, or you have to leave the country. It’s hard but not impossible. It’s a bad situation anyways.
President tweets something Friday afternoon and you probably had no idea.
Depending on where they work, that might be the case. I know a number of government employees and I wouldn't describe any of them as "miserable." Maybe a little griping about the end of telework -- they were already back in the office three days a week -- but, otherwise they seem no different than a year ago. (That includes concerns about a government shutdown; but, those concerns are directed at Congress.)
They did neither.
Isnt that Silicon Valley's mantra.
I did read it, the media reporting was accurate at the time, the proclamation as is doesn’t say anything about new applications, it just says that h1b holders won’t be let in unless they can prove the 100k$ fee was paid by their company starting September 21st.
The lawyers at my employer, much more qualified than me regarding law matters, reached the same conclusion as I did as a layman on the subject.
As if that ever stopped this administration from doing something.
In any case this new order was not ambiguous. It plainly said the restriction was on "entry", not the issuance of new visas. Nobody reading the text of the order claimed otherwise. The Trump administration just changed their position, in informal guidance rather than a formal executive order but with similar practical and legal effect.
Anyone who returned early was effectively hedging, paying the airline change fee and some inconvenience to avoid a potential $100k fee or worse, with downsides including job loss--potentially leading to forced repatriation--if your employer doesn't pay, and indefinite detention under harsh conditions. That hedge currently seems likely to expire worthless; but with such an imbalanced payoff, are you really saying you wouldn't have paid it yourself?
Even expert interpretation considered it WOULD happen.
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 :)
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?
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.
Why?
It generally requires rulemaking to be done pursuant to a public-comment period and not be done in a way that is "arbitrary and capricious." I'm not familiar with the Immigration & Nationalisation Act(s), (as amended), so I don't know the degree to which public comment is required and judicial review permitted, but a last-minute rule like this would be expected to make it to the SCOTUS docket earlier in our republic.
On the other hand companies with the right corruption chain will make up whatever paperwork they have to , to bypass any of these after-the-fact clarifying sound bites.
Meanwhile the Supreme Court has granted 16 out of 19 emergency petitions filed by the executive to overturn those rulings, grants that often require shifts in precedent without written reasoning, leading a Justice voting in the minority to describe the Court's current shadow docket practice as "Calvinball."
So (a) they are filing cases (b) they are winning (c) the Supreme Court is giving every indication that the law will be whatever it needs to be to have those cases ultimately lose.
The emergency docket does not set precedent. (If you like your Roman law, it is analogous to how a consul acting with senatus contultum ultimum is empowered [1], versus a dictator, who can literally make law.)
SCOTUS has been deferring to the administration around what happens while a case is being litigated. It’s stupid. But it’s not Aileen Cannon corrupt (not yet).
(If I’m guessing correctly, they’re bending the knee with one leg and punting with the other. If the midterms swing even one house of the Congress, the judiciary regains its independence.)
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senatus_consultum_ultimum
> Joined by fellow conservative justice and Trump appointee Brett Kavanaugh, Gorsuch wrote that all Supreme Court orders carry the weight of precedent, regardless of whether or not they were issued in a shadow docket ruling.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/judges-vexed-by-sup...
but yeah he is a bad president who has done huge damage to our nation due to his disrespect for checks and balances
New H-1B visa fee will not apply to existing holders, official says - 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 - 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 - Sept 2025 (552 comments)
The H-1B Visa Program and Its Impact on the U.S. Economy - 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 - Sept 2025 (1750 comments)
duxup•4mo ago
Sounds like it's just corruption as a service.
jandrese•4mo ago
cardamomo•4mo ago
georgemcbay•4mo ago
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•4mo ago
georgemcbay•4mo ago
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•4mo ago
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...
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/us/politics/trump-justice...
agildehaus•4mo ago
duxup•4mo ago
Trump isn't above cutting a deal and altering it and continuously making demands.
klipt•4mo ago
FridayoLeary•4mo ago
DaveZale•4mo ago
trhway•4mo ago
heavyset_go•4mo ago
FridayoLeary•4mo ago
To be frank the H1b scheme seems slightly dodgy to me anyway. But i only learned about it 30 minutes ago.
JohnTHaller•4mo ago