The founders of startups say that Trump’s duties worth $ 100,000 H-1B are a “talent tariff” that will harm innovation

Omar Awadallah, founder of Ai Startup Vectara, was a fact when he heard about the changes in the H-1B visa program Raise the request fees for each visa to 100,000 dollars.

Not surprised. But he was dismayed.

“I cannot pay $ 100,000,” Awad Allah told Techcrunch. He has rented one employee on the H-1B, and although the new fees apply only to new requests, he is believed to be very high for many startups and will be priced from international employment.

H-1B Visa has been created to allow companies to hire a skilled talent From a global market for such professions like them and engineering. On Friday, Trump announced that the high fees, which the employer usually pays, will increase from 2000 to 5,000 dollars to 100,000 dollars per request, a change he will feel particularly with the new visa group available in March.

Immigration is a major issue for President Trump, who, in order to return to his campaign in his 2016 campaign, accused companies using H-1B to take jobs from American citizens.

Critics of the high fees noted that this visa helped bring people who continued to start or operate companies by billions of dollars. Among the former bearers of Google Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Elon Musk. The visa was easier than the O-1 visa to get an unusual ability, and faster to get a green card.

Awadallah said: “The impact will be severe on the competitiveness and innovation of smaller startups compared to the bonds of major companies.” While Big Tech can carry these drawings more easily, it feels that startups will be absent. He said that the pricing of startups, “will affect innovation in very negative ways in the long run.”

The technology industry can cost $ 5.5 billion a year

More than 700,000 People in the United States live on H-1BAnd they brought with them more than 500,000 of the recipients, such as couples (who are allowed to work under this visa) and children, according to the FWD.US. Indian citizens are The largest beneficiaries of the visa, Followed by China and the rest of the world, according to American citizenship and immigration services.

Only 85,000 new people in the year can receive the visa (20,000 of them must just graduate from an American university), and the demand excels on the availability, so the H-1BS is randomly allocated, in a lottery in March. Technology companies have I pressed for years to increase Within the annual H-1B limits.

Critics claim that these companies use H-1B holders to replace American workers with employees paid from abroad. Others say that he takes advantage of foreign workers, as the visa is associated with the employer, so workers cannot easily switch jobs and face deportation if they lose their jobs.

Those who support the high visa fees said that it could cancel the lottery because the costs are now so high that employers will specify their requests.

Of the 85,000 new H-1B visas issued every year, about 55,000 goes to computer-related jobs, according to Business market designWhich participated in the data with Techcrunch. Previously, the total cost of employing these workers decreased between 200 million dollars and 400 million dollars, but under the new fees, it will cost the technology industry $ 5.5 billion annually to employ H-1B technology.

Under the proposed changes, the minimum employers in salaries must increase, as the H-1B recipient will increase, a change that is described to help prevent the undermining of the salaries of American citizens’ workers.

But many questions are still looming on the horizon. For example, Sophie Alcorne, a immigration lawyer who works with startups, said it is unclear whether $ 100,000 will be returned to the motivation if the request is rejected. Given the high price of prices on Friday, it is not clear whether VISA appeals are currently being reviewed.

“This forces us to stop, and we hope temporarily, many H-1B petitions for ambitious founders,” she said. “We are waiting for more guidance.”

“This makes me somewhat sad.”

Silicon Valley founders say they look around the world because there is a Lack of technical talents in the United StatesEspecially for skills such as artificial intelligence engineering.

Brian Sathanathan, co -founder and CTO for AI, has a handful of employees on the visa and returns to the visa for his successful previous exit.

“My last company that I participated in establishing and selling was the founder of my H-1B visa. My engineering head was on the H-1B visa.” With these high fees for the visa application, “it was not possible”.

Other founders warn that the drawings send a sign that foreign talents may not be welcomed.

The impact will be severe on the competitiveness and innovation of smaller startups compared to excessive performance and major companies.

Hemant Mohapatra, a partner in India at Lightspeed Venture Partners, was on H-1B for approximately 15 years. He said that the expensive barriers for worker visas in technology can leave The innovation gap in the ecosystem to start operating in the United States Because a large percentage of the single lashes of Decacorn was already founded by immigrants.

He said that people who have often brought to the United States on the H-1B visa continued later to start their American companies. Sometimes, their children grow up to be founders as well.

This is the Jeffrey Wang experience, co -founder of AI Exa.ai. While a few of his workers obtained H-1B visas from a former employer, Wang’s parents immigrated to the United States as H-1B recipients.

“I heard the news and it was so made me somewhat sad,” he told Techcrunch. “I feel that people like my father will not be able to come to America anymore.”

The Trump administration said that changing the visa is to protect national interests, but Wang believes that providing the best talents to the United States helps in the nation’s security. He said as a nation of immigrants, almost every engineering or scientific achievement in the United States participated in the immigrants.

Emerging companies explore their options

American startups are now scrambling. Some want exceptions engraved for startups. The administration said that the exemptions were possible in cases of national attention.

Meanwhile, Cesium Techcrunch has seen that it has seen an increase of more than 50 % in the founders of the early stage who are looking for O-1 visas (although husbands cannot work on this visa). In the next stage, companies look at the EB-1A visa, which is usually given to those who are at the top of their fields, and the couples are allowed to work.

I feel that people like my father will not be able to come to America anymore.

Jack Thorf, CEO and founder of the original salary lists, said his company tracked an increase of a 50 % increase in American companies that explore the global visa -free recruitment options, such as remote work.

The original teams, which work with more than 3,000 companies in 85 countries, said that Her rental will now equal to 20 remote resonances in many other countries.

He believes that startups will only start using external sources of talents or keeping their workers abroad. “It will not be more expensive that you have a talent outside anyway,” Thor is said.

Markets such as Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom are already flourishing technology centers that work as a decline for companies that open international offices.

“If the United States is provoking barriers, the UK and others must adapt accordingly to harnessing the amazing talent that exists from all corners of the world,” Oliver Kent Brahham, CEO and co -founder of UNICORN MARSHMLY UK, told Techcrunch.

Canadian Daniel Wigdor, founder of AI Venture and Profesor Studio at the University of Toronto, agreed that changing the visa fees was not a good step for the United States

“Instead of competing for the best in the world, they test the amount of companies you will pay to import,” he said. “This situation may play locally, but it risk reducing the dominance of global technology for America.”

This piece has been updated to reflect the correct title of Deniel Wigdor.