A coalition of business groups warned President Donald Trump that a newly announced $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications risks harming the US economy and urged the administration to avoid changes to the skilled worker program that impose added burdens on companies.
In a letter sent Friday to Trump, roughly a dozen industry organizations representing chipmakers, software companies and retailers said the new fee threatens to crimp a crucial talent pipeline of foreign skilled workers and leave critical jobs unfilled.
“We ask the administration to work with industry on necessary reforms to the H-1B visa program without increasing the significant challenges US employers face recruiting, training, and retaining top talent,” the groups wrote.
The letter, sent two weeks after the president’s H-1B proclamation, was careful to laud Trump’s efforts to bring investment to the US. Signers included the Business Software Alliance, the semiconductor industry’s SEMI, the National Retail Federation, the Entertainment Software Association and the Information Technology Industry Council, according to a copy seen by Bloomberg News.
The industry groups’ objections marked a rare rebuke from the business community of US policy under the new administration. Trump announced the H-1B changes at the White House last month, heralding the $100,000 fee as a way to rein in abuses in the skilled worker program while pushing US companies to turn more to domestic talent to fill jobs.
A White House spokesperson defended the new H-1B policy, saying it would help US companies access top talent while reducing fallout from “fraudulent practices by bad-faith actors.”
“Widespread visa abuse not only undermines American workers, but undermines the companies” that need to recruit first-class talent, White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement.
Higher costs from the new H-1B fees threaten to hammer a wide range of industries, from technology to health care to finance. Companies including Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc. have relied for years on the skilled worker program to bolster their ranks, and changes to the program put their talent pipelines at risk.
Cutting-edge sectors like artificial intelligence and biomedical engineering will need a high-skilled workforce to sustain their pace of growth in the US, the groups wrote. The H-1B changes risk hurting progress in those key areas, the groups said. Intel Corp., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Samsung Electronics Co., Applied Materials Inc. and KLA Corp. all have members on SEMI’s board.
“The new approach to H-1B visas, as it stands, will harm the Administration’s goals to ensure the US remains a leader in AI, revitalizes manufacturing growth, and propels US-developed energy,” the groups wrote.
Representatives from Walmart, Target Corp. and Macy’s Inc. are part of the NRF’s executive committee and board. The federation didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Walmart is among major users of H-1B visas in the US along with tech giants and consulting companies. After Trump announced the $100,000 fee, several major companies urged employees holding the visa not to leave the US.
The letter emphasized that each of the industries represented “stand ready to work with the administration” to change the H-1B program. Copies of the letter were also shared with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Trump’s H-1B visa changes faced their first major court challenge on Friday. A nurse-staffing agency and several unions sued the administration in federal court seeking to block the fee. For hospitals, the H-1B program is crucial to recruiting doctors in rural areas hit by shortages of health care workers. The administration said on Sept. 22 doctors could qualify for exemptions from the new fee.
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