White House Defends $100K H-1B Visa Fee Hike, Pointing to U.S. Job Losses.
Amid growing tensions over the recent hike in H-1B visa application fees, the White House released a fact sheet justifying President Donald Trump’s decision to impose a USD 100,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications.
Citing facts from the factsheet, the White House pointed out that the share of IT workers on H-1B visas has increased from 32% in FY 2003 to over 65% in recent years, while unemployment among recent computer science graduates reached 6.1% and 7.5%.
"Unemployment among recent computer science graduates has reached 6.1% and 7.5% for computer engineering graduates - more than double the rates for biology or art history majors. The number of foreign STEM workers in the US has more than doubled between 2000 and 2019, while overall STEM employment only increased 44.5% during that time," the White House said.