US Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi has warned that the steep H-1B visa fee could discourage highly skilled foreign talent from working in the country and push American companies to move jobs overseas.
US Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi has raised concerns over the impact of the $100,000 H-1B visa fee, warning that the policy could ultimately encourage US companies to offshore work rather than bring skilled talent into the country.
Speaking about the implications of the fee, Krishnamoorthi argued that the issue is not limited to workers from any particular country but affects highly skilled professionals from across the world, including India, China and Sweden.
“These people fill some of the most exquisite technical roles in our economy,” Krishnamoorthi said, highlighting the contribution of foreign-born professionals to the US technology and innovation ecosystem.
He also pointed to the role many such professionals have played in creating companies and jobs in the United States. According to the congressman, discouraging skilled workers from coming to or remaining in the country could have consequences that extend well beyond the immigration system.
Krishnamoorthi said the $100,000 fee effectively acts as a tax on companies seeking to employ H-1B workers, potentially making it more difficult for businesses to retain or recruit specialised talent.
He warned that the policy could also prompt existing workers to reconsider whether they want to remain in the US.
The Congressman further cautioned that companies facing difficulty in hiring specialised talent domestically could increasingly look overseas for alternatives.
“You can either onshore the talent or offshore the work,” Krishnamoorthi said, arguing that companies would ultimately have to find a way to complete the work and could respond to higher immigration costs by moving certain operations abroad.
More from BusinessThe comments come amid an intense debate in the US over the future of the H-1B visa programme, which is widely used by technology companies and other businesses to recruit highly skilled foreign professionals.
Indian professionals have historically been among the largest beneficiaries of the H-1B programme, particularly in technology, engineering and specialised professional roles. Any significant increase in the cost of hiring H-1B workers could therefore have a disproportionate impact on Indian technology professionals and companies that rely on global talent.
Krishnamoorthi’s warning also highlights a broader concern for the US economy: policies designed to prioritise domestic hiring could inadvertently encourage businesses to relocate work to countries where specialised talent can be hired at lower cost.
The debate over the H-1B programme is therefore increasingly shifting from immigration policy to a question of US competitiveness, access to skilled talent and the location of high-value jobs.
