By Chris Prentice and Surbhi Misra
NEW YORK/BENGALURU (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump’s new visa fees for foreign workers drew widespread condemnation from technology executives, entrepreneurs and investors across social media, with just a few outliers, as many saw it as a major blow to a sector that contributed millions to his re-election campaign.
Technology executives and investors said the new fees could add millions of dollars in costs for companies and disproportionately hurt startups, which may not be able to afford visas as part of their strategy.
In a confusing set of announcements beginning late Friday, Trump and other White House officials said they would charge firms $100,000 apiece for H1-B worker temporary employment visas, used by many tech majors, including Amazon.com, Microsoft and Meta Platforms.
Many criticized the move and the chaotic roll-out that required the White House to clarify the hefty fees would be charged just once, not annually, and they would not apply to existing holders, including those who happened to be overseas at the time of the announcement.
Meta, Microsoft and Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Most executives at the tech giants, many of whom have forged close relationships with the Trump White House since his return to office, have not commented publicly on the proposal, which could drastically change their system of attracting talent from countries such as India and China. But others weighed in.
“America’s edge has always been that we attract smart, ambitious people from everywhere,” said Esther Crawford, a former Twitter executive and investor who now works as director of product management at Meta, according to her LinkedIn profile.
“High-skilled immigrants don’t take from us, they build with us. Some of the best colleagues in my career have been H-1B holders chasing their own American dream.”
The Trump administration has cracked down on immigration on a number of levels, including stepped-up border security and raids that have largely targeted lower-skilled workers, many of whom are undocumented migrants.
Most recently, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided a Georgia battery plant owned by South Korea’s Hyundai Motor that angered officials in Seoul, who have raised questions about the relationship with the United States.
Economists at Berenberg warned that the proposed visa fee hike could further burden a U.S. labor market already weakened by the lingering effects of Trump-era trade policies. While artificial intelligence may help alleviate some staffing shortages, analysts cautioned that rising costs could pressure companies and eventually affect their clients.
“By making it very expensive for companies to attract foreign talent, and by forcing some international students to leave the country after graduation, the brain drain will weigh heavily on productivity,” they wrote.
CHAOS AT AIRPORTS
The late Friday announcement caused chaos for travelers, some of whom got off planes rather than go overseas while others raced home on the advice of their companies before the White House clarified the order.
“My heart goes out to all the families and individuals anxious over their futures following the abrupt and chaotic announcement of H-1B visa changes,” said Andrew Ng, founder of DeepLearningAI, in a post on LinkedIn. “America should be working to attract more skilled talent, not create uncertainty that turns them away.”
The change met with some support from top executives, including IBM Vice Chairman Gary Cohn, who served as head of the White House National Economic Council in the first Trump administration. He told CBS News the new fees as a “good idea” that would help bring in employees with high-value skillsets.
Netflix Chairman Reed Hastings shared a similar view in a post on X, saying the higher cost would mean visas would be used only for “very high value jobs” and provide more certainty for those who have them.
But David Seidman, the head of platform security at fintech firm Plaid, predicted on LinkedIn that “at least one” of the Big Tech names would stop hiring for those jobs in the United States and build out their footprint in India or Canada.
(Reporting by Chris Prentice in New York and Surbhi Misra in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
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