Stanford, Columbia risk getting hit by Trump’s $100,000 H-1B fee

For now, like companies across corporate America, most schools are waiting to see how the visa changes play out.

President Donald Trump's $100,000 fee for H-1B visas was a warning shot to Corporate America to toe the line on immigration. It also deals another financial blow to universities already battered by the administration's crusade against top colleges.

The White House's attempts to overhaul the H-1B visa system has sowed chaos in tech and finance, with Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and Citigroup Inc. among the biggest users of the program. But colleges across the US, from the Ivy League to state universities and dozens of medical schools, apply for thousands of visas annually to hire researchers and academic staff.

Stanford, the largest employer of H-1B holders in the education sector, currently employs more than 500 staff and faculty on the high-skill visa. It has averaged roughly 270 new hires per year since 2023, according to data from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. That means it would cost at least $27 million a year extra to fulfill these visas.

Other top H-1B employer universities, such as Columbia, the University of Michigan, Harvard and Washington University in St. Louis, hire hundreds and would have to pay the government in the range of $10 million to $20 million a year under the new visa rules, if they maintain the same level of hiring.

That additional charge could force universities to cut back on the visas or further strain finances that have already been squeezed by the Trump administration's cuts to federal funding for research and attacks on international students.

“No university is going to be willing to pay that,” said Ryan Allen, a professor of comparative and international education at Soka University of America in California. “It will change hiring and recruitment practices from here on out. The international talent pool for researchers and faculty  — that’s turned off.”

Of the 20 universities with the most H-1B holders on staff, none responded to questions about whether they would be willing to dole out the cash.

Large universities or those with hefty endowments may be more able and willing to pay than smaller colleges already grappling with funding cuts and declining enrollment. But wealthy research institutions are also far more reliant on H-1Bs, and will bear the brunt of the new fees.

For now, like companies across corporate America, most schools are waiting to see how the visa changes play out.

Recruiting Talent

Large research universities have used the H-1B system in recent decades to hire researchers, assistant faculty and other academic staff from overseas. Many cutting-edge research labs and computer engineering programs in particular are filled with H-1B holders for whom the path to US citizenship is a powerful recruiting tool. Colleges also rely on H-1Bs to lure high-achieving postdoctoral fellows to their programs in everything from chemical engineering to philosophy.

As of 2023, about 58 percent of all postdoctoral staff in science, engineering and health fields were on a temporary visa like the H-1B, according to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics.

Universities, unlike corporations, don’t have to hire H-1B holders in the annual lottery, and are not subject to the annual cap on new hires, giving them more flexibility and leverage to attract talent from around the world. Brendan Cantwell, a professor at Michigan State University who specializes in the political economy of higher education, said colleges have “made great use” of this exemption.

“It created an opportunity to bring in really talented — in some cases overqualified — people who were extra motivated because their employment was tied to their visa,” he said.

Many large research universities that are more likely to hire H-1B holders have already eliminated postdoc positions, cut program costs and rescinded Ph.D. admissions due to reductions in federal funding. Among the universities that instituted staff hiring freezes this year are MIT, Harvard, Penn, Stanford and the entire University of California system.

Omar Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the UC system, said that while they are still reviewing the scope and effects of the executive order, “its impact is nonetheless profound.”

“UC and other leading research universities are already seeing a brain drain of talent in high-demand fields who are taking their expertise abroad,” he said. “Accelerating this trend will hurt our nation and lead to less innovation, fewer cures to disease and less economic growth.”

Many H-1B employees at universities are medical students doing their residencies, and the new fees could have a chilling effect on recruiting candidates.

James Hollis, an immigration lawyer, said those who went to medical school in the US would likely be exempt from the new fee, especially since the White House has said the order would not apply to applicants who sought to change status from another short-term student visa. The White House also said Monday that doctors could qualify for potential exemptions, but the details are still unclear, including if it will apply to medical residents or researchers.

“Almost every single foreign national doctor who eventually gets a green card and is trained in the United States has to go through the H-1B,” he said. If medical schools balk at the fee, it could constrict the pipeline for funneling top medical talent into the US.

Foreign Students

For international students, the H-1B visa is a key pathway for remaining in the country after finishing school. The new fee is likely to erode international enrollment, at a time when the Trump administration has already targeted this student group in its broader campaign to reshape higher education.

The order will especially affect students from India, the largest international student market for US colleges and a key source of tuition revenue.

Rajika Bhandari, a longtime international education consultant who focuses largely on South Asia, said many Indian students view attending college or graduate school as the beginning of a career pathway, and the H-1B visa is an integral part. The latest change is likely to cast further doubt on the wisdom of attending college in the US, she said.

“For those international students, the question won’t just be ‘can I get a visa to come,’” she said. “It will be more about playing the long game.”