Sweeping changes to the H-1B foreign worker visa scheme relied on by US tech groups were announced by US president Donald Trump late on Friday.
The changes left companies scrambling to figure out exactly what is happening amid fears companies with workers on the scheme could face hefty new fees.
What are H-1B visas?
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US employers to temporarily hire foreign workers in speciality occupations such as IT, engineering, medicine, and finance.
The visa, by the US department of labour’s own admission, is intended to help employers who cannot otherwise obtain needed skills and abilities from the US workforce.
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The visa is administered by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). It is valid for up to three years, and extendable to six years. Extensions beyond six years are possible in cases such as if the worker is in the process of obtaining a green card.
[ Trump’s H-1B visa fee to hit employers with $14bn annual billOpens in new window ]
Why are they in the news?
The key change announced by Trump is the imposition of a $100,000 (€85,000) fee on the cost to companies to secure one of these visas for each new employee to enter the country. That marked about a 50-fold increase on what the fee was previously.
After some initial panic from workers and companies, the White House clarified the fee would only apply to new applicants starting from the next visa lottery in February, not current H-1B holders.
Trump said some carveouts would be offered at the administration’s discretion, but it was not clear how widely these would be available.
How do you get one of these visas?
USCIS approved 399,395 H-1B petitions last year, of which 141,207 were new. India (73 per cent) and China (12 per cent) made up the vast majority of approvals. Roughly two thirds of all H-1B visa holders work in the IT industry.
There are various criteria, including that workers must be highly skilled, have a job offer from a US employer, and a degree matching the job’s requirements.
The employer must pay the prevailing wage for the job in the geographic area, ensure working conditions don’t adversely affect US workers, and pay the “training and processing” fee mentioned earlier. There is normally a lottery due to high demand.
How many Irish people are on them?
Approvals for Irish-born workers have been in decline for a number of years, but have stabilised in and around the 400 mark in recent years. There were 372 last year, of which 213 were new, USCIS data shows.
There were 380 approvals in 2023, of which 183 were new. That figure was down from 421 in 2022, of which 185 were new.
Irish-born workers typically represents about 0.1 per cent of total approvals. Approval numbers for Irish workers have generally been falling for some years now. They stood at 2,161 in 2011 and were down to 1,100 in 2016.
Why has the number been falling?
Trump’s latest foray into this area is not his first. Indeed, he took aim at the H-1B visa programme while on the campaign trail ahead of his first term.
After he was elected in 2016, immigration policies, and in particularly for skilled worker programmes like the H-1B visa, underwent significant changes, largely driven by his America First agenda.
Trump’s changes were designed to protect and prioritise American workers through increased scrutiny on applications, while employers also faced higher risks for perceived fraudulent use of the scheme.
Trump signed an executive order entitled Buy American, Hire American in 2017, which led to denial rates increasing from 6 per cent in 2015 to 15 per cent in 2018.
What do companies have to say about all this?
Not a lot so far. Amazon is, by far, the biggest user of the scheme, with 9,265 approvals last year. The likes of Google, Microsoft, IBM, Meta, and others also sponsored thousands of workers under the scheme.
Lawyers acting for big US companies have said their clients are awaiting further clarification from the US department of state. Companies are also considering bringing a legal challenge, so it remains to seen how all this will play out.
When Trump first had the scheme in his crosshairs, Irish tech entrepreneurs living in the US such as Intercom’s Eoghan McCabe and Patrick and John Collison, the Limerick-born brothers behind online payments firm Stripe, were among the most vocal critics.
McCabe told The Irish Times the visas were “crucial to the tech industry”, as well as “already incredibly restrictive and difficult to obtain”. He suggested more restrictive policy around the visas would “kill” Silicon Valley.
What is your experience of the H-1B visa, as a worker or employer?
