H1B Visa Fee now $100k, No more internationals?
It’s wild that companies for years have used H1-B Visas as an excuse to suppress pay by saying they couldn’t find any good candidates in the US when they have thousands applying to each seat. This will impact recruiting for IB.
I’m a liberal who agrees with Trump on this one
I'm a right wing conservative who disagrees with this low IQ decision to nuke the H1B
Can’t be that right wing
I'm a registered republican...West Point grad, Army vet, voted for Trump, I lean right on most issues...and I think this is fucking retarded.
There’re a dozen fake body shop IT consultancy firms that were shoveling thousands of Indians into the US through H1B, but simply wiping H1B out won’t benefit anyone (neither US economy nor the talented internationals who should be welcomed here in the US). Unlike IT where H1B presence was much more pronounced, IB and overall high finance world are less exposed to any labor market shock as the overall share of H1B holders is not more than a few percentage points.
You support IT bodyshops? Certainly there are some desirable impacts here.
Lmaoo if you really gotta depend on restricting job access to internationals (who like occupies 1% of wallstreet) to think you will be able to finally land a job in high finance, thats actually very pathetic. Seems like a skill issue to me.
1%? Would venture to guess weve given away a third of positions to non americans. Meanwhile people that grew up a couple miles from wallstreet live lower middle class or worse lives. Enough! America first!
Yuh one third ahhuh - whatever makes you happy man. If you care this much about the lower middle class people living just miles away from wallstreet, maybe pay higher taxes and go give them your bonus? What a piss take. Goodluck taking all the internationals jobs. Wallstreet is in great hands I can tell already.
ima baised since I am a Eastern European, but I do understand you. Might sound terrible but the problem in my POV is not immigration a whole - it is immigration from the Third World that is oversubscribed.
I love the US. But, since my home is in a developed part of the world, I will eventually move back which is the very point of the H1B: work in the US temporarily, deliver value, but not immigrate. However, third world internationals don't have that stability at home - hence coming to the US is a "I am in paradise" sorta moment (aka they will never leave). My point: allowing non-immigration visas in a large quantity from the Third World, without implicitly accounting for these visa holders to eventually fully immigrate, is a not very thought through policy in terms of demographic transfers. One might even say its very cynical.
Point is, sometimes stating visa requirements in terms of geography (and by extension ethnicity) is in fact a necessary pre-requisite for a functional non-immigration visa policy. Boils down to "countries that are well off can partially share there labour markets, as non of them will attract too much labour" (point in case EU before 2016).
Bro really thinks Eastern Europe is 1st world lmfao
Only one comment from me:
The H1b is a dual-intent visa, meaning it can be used for immigration purposes. A sponsor may file for a green card while you are working on it.
H1B is dual intent dickhead, people allow to hold the visa with intent to become permanent resident. If you have a wonderful nation, you want people dream of settling there, not being economic mercenary making quick cash and bounce - that's Dubai. That's why there's American Dream, and not Dubai Dream. That's why even America's foes - China and Russia and Iran, their prodigies and most brilliant minds want to become American.
removed comment due to WOKE RIGHT WING CANCEL CULTURE
dude pls stand up if u r eastern european you are NOTT going back to ur country brother, and i say this as someone from an eastern european background like we are third world? come on now. Work in the us to deliver value, for the sake of what? you don’t have to flat out lie here this is no border control
America is meritocracy. Hungry dogs run faster.
What a joke. My IB club at a T15 is 60% internationals. The club cut some veterans with SOF experience for Indians who couldn’t speak English properly. H1B visa is a joke and the Indians involved only recruit Indians
I have a dream that one day there won’t be Indian internationals at T15 MBA programs.
Yes lets compare the composition of a random ass T15 mba IB club (kinda embarrassing tbh that you didn’t make it to m7 lmao - major skill issue) with actual firm compositions across wallstreet.
Maybe ask your SOF and veteran buddies to hone up their finance skills? Veterans also get a lot of DEI access to wallstreet firms so don’t even know what you are yapping about tbh.
Work on your skills issues man, and you will get into IB. No wonder why MBA associates have such bad rep across this forum.
d
Bro this is absolutely false, based on real groups and real banks I’ve seen. Over half of my old group comprised of internationals, and they weren’t particularly qualified
Old group was predominately international. They know they benefit from hiring individuals who have barriers to leave for a new firm
I already have a job in this life-sucking industry (which I’m trying to get out of), that doesn’t mean I can’t see the fallback that the H1B abuse has caused in not just finance, but also tech.
The FAANG companies have a major issue right now where so many of the middle managers and above got promoted off the credit they stole from the work of the H1B slaves they’ve been abusing. And of course, the H1Bs are too terrified to speak up or leave because they risk getting sent back to their home countries. Some of the shit these managers have done to them would cross into workplace harassment lawsuit territory. This had led to so many incompetent and toxic managers being promoted to the top.
I don’t even care about the employment spots they take, what I care about is that regular employees are stuck on teams with awful managers that don’t know what they’re doing, and they can’t even report the harassment because the H1Bs would be too terrified to corroborate their story. I wanted to switch to FAANG, but hearing these stories about middle management being overrun by awful people really deterred me. Most of my friends ended up quitting or switching to smaller companies that don’t sponsor as much.
Exactly this. I don't care about the "competition" from internationals. It's 10x harder for an international to get a job anyways. The problem is that when they do get a job, they're treated like shit and can't do anything about it so the whole company culture goes down the drain.
F me.... This got too real bro
internationals are doomed boys
For MBA associates over half the student pipeline is international. Quality will decrease and I’m okay with that if it means giving americans who otherwise wouldnt make it more opportunities. May have to recruit from rank 15-20 programs more, etc. Ultimately will be fine.
Indians, chinese and koreans are cooked
You underestimate how many rich Indians, Chinese, and Koreans there are that will pay for H1B. Look at any Ivy/T10 undergraduate school, 95% of internationals at those places from China/India/Korea are extremely wealthy. This affects poor internationals who are seeking better lives the most.
No bossinesses have to pay this fee not the international person
good, back to their countries to develop them
great day! so tired of internationals coming here - acting mostly liberal AF, basically just congregating with others in their own race only, whining about usa culture, and then acting entitled to live and work here.
the ones that come here and integrate and embrace usa culture are cool, everyone else go back home please
and just on a personal note, I have only had terrible experiences working for indians, chinese and korean seniors. like worst of the worst experiences.
Same. Especially indian they treat you like a lower caste
they are the worst
Lots of Asian cultures are socially conservative, even more so than the typical conservative in the west. Not sure where the “acting liberal” is coming from
They may be socially conservative but they vote democrat every time.
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If you ever wonder why people are so anti-immigrant in the comments, maybe you should check your attitude.
Europeans arrived in wooden ships to a vast, undeveloped landmass sparsely populated by uncivilized savage tribes and built it into the most successful nation the world has ever seen. Now people want to act like that's the same as stepping off a plane into a post-industrial nation, because "we are all immigrants." The equivalency couldn't be more false.
Don't forget where we got these lands? Don't hate on our culture just because it produced something yours couldn't. Don't forget that Oxford University is more than 200 years older than the Aztec empire or that the Prague astronomical clock predates the pile of rocks that is Machu Picchu. Don’t forget where you got your electricity, your internet, or virtually every invention that has improved your standard of living. You don't see our culture because you live in it. This is water.
Rallying voters to your cause, I see.
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Wouldn’t celebrate too early - policy seems unlikely to stick. Heavy lobbying incoming…
This will likely be one of the most popular polling items in the Trump 2.0 era. It might not be 100K, but 50K is an easy number to settle on.
Self-destructing the US technology R&D machine is retarded.
No reason entry level associates and analysts should be on H1Bs. If a rainmaker MD then sure but otherwise no thank you
That doesn’t make any sense. Unless you personally have a structural problem with the H1B - which you could, but then voice that - how do you suspect does the rainmaker MD build his relationships? Is he going to do it in HK and then bring those over? Lol
A MD one not be on a H1B at the point… they likely would have received a green card years ago…
The point still stands lol. Do you think they‘d really be able to transfer over all relationships to a whole new geography? And how do you think they’d be able to get sponsored for a green card? Let me give you a tip - they‘d have to be in the country for a little while… perfect example of what I mean when I say that Americans just don’t get it
Seoul is great this time of year. Work around 120 hours for 20% of US pay. Great culture and some great kbbq spots.
Would think that conservatives would understand the concept of unintended consequences since they're always hurling that line at liberals.... all this will do is incentivize corporations to move their operations away from the US and to foreign countries entirely, leaving no economic growth for the US to capture.... it will be value that is taken from American consumers and split between other countries and US corporations who will in no way pay it back into the system via taxes... this will only widen inequality even further
You think our economic growth is coming from a program that’s abused to import Indian males? lol
You think american tech (where all the wealth in this country is created nowadays) turns out the same without h1b? boy do i have news for you
It's certainly not coming from some chud second year analyst aligning logos all day
id rather have jobs offshored to india than have indians move to the usa and work here
both are not great outcomes, but one is worse. look at canada/toronto...thats the usa in 10 years unless we act on this now.
It’s truly amazing just how much this garbage demographic has gotten everyone in America and Canada to hate them and want them out. Like 85% of people across race, political, class and religious lines simply want them to fuck off.
If it wasn’t for outsized influence of globocorps (tech, banking, consulting) on our pathetic politicians, this would have been handled properly years ago.
I understand the rationale that americans will get preferences for these jobs, but the reality is corporates have more room to move jobs around globally to make sure the costs are low. If this were to come into effect, I see more outsourcing of junior roles to India, where there's already plenty of people working in support roles. This doesn't help anyone.
better than those indians moving here though
If someone went to high school outside the US, just know that working for them is likely a very shitty experience
what about undergrad?
I am intrigued to hear this, I have worked for similar people in other countries (outside of the US) and it was also a very negative experience.
Why is that?
I can only comment about my previous situations:
When a huge company is laying off US workers one hand and applying for thousands of H1B's on the other, while the jobless ultimately become the responsibility of the same taxpayer who supports that huge company in so many ways . . yeah something's gotta give.
The amount of nonsense and racism coming from undergrads in this forum is sad. The fact that most of the comments are all anonymous also just furthers the point that you cowards don’t deserve these jobs and don’t have what it takes to get them.
Internationals need to jump through a millions hoops to be able to get the jobs in the first place in the past 5/7yrs since the H1B lottery has become incredibly hard to get and that employers don’t want to risk losing their employees after 1/3yrs. So you can imagine how sh*t you must be to lose a hiring process to an international kid.
Add to that that if international kids weren’t the ones coming to US colleges and paying full tuition (which most Americans don’t) college tuitions would also through the roof.
So stop being so clueless about life, study a little harder, and maybe take a plane to the other side of the pond to try and open your mind a little bit and be less of a clueless idiot. Then you’ll get a job.
Also FYI already spoke with MDs and HR at my bank and other friends did the same at theirs, and the 100k fee doesn’t change anything, quite the opposite they now know that besides them and big tech no one will pay for it so they feel better now of being able to keep their international employees here. Tough luck kids
No one spoke anything about entitlement. International kids work hard, usually harder to be able to overcome to hoops I already referred to, apply and get the jobs that’s all. No one said anything about entitlement. The racism in talking about is the f**^^%g nonsense that’s been posted about about “return to your country” or whatever other bs we can read above.
As I said you’re just most likely not smart enough to get the job that’s all. Every few years non-target sad lonely dudes find something new to complain about, was the the nepo kids getting the jobs, then the women, then the whole DEI. Now that all of these are getting stopped the new one to target are internationals.
Mate it’s ok, you’re not cut out for it, you’re local State Farm is always hiring, you’ll find something in the end.
You think banks will absorb 100k/analyst? Sure.
they'd be banking on the analyst being in IB long enough to recoup that investment
Big seconding of the above, you summed it up perfectly. Laughable how easy Americans think it is to break in, when in reality most banks only hire internationals if they are substantially better. That is, if those banks even hire internationals in the first place. Thousands of hoops and visa regulations to go through and so many less exit opportunities when on the job… and yet they think internationals are the problem
H1Bs exist only if companies can’t find anyone qualified. With that much interest in IB, that’s just a straight up lie that there wasn’t a single American who could fill that role
It's a result of this Trumpian nativist wave. As you may have noticed, he's basically upended global norms universally, and the decorum of public discourse in the US pre 2016 is deader than the dinasaurs.
Literally this, I work at Citadel/Millennium and the H1B changes make it easier for us…not harder lmao
Yes, it gets rid of the lottery and becomes purely pay to play. High skill orgs will eat this up all day.
The big investment banks love internationals because they will ultimately be stuck at the bank and at the bank’s mercy if they’re hired. So banks know they can pay / treat the candidate like garbage with no consequences, which makes compensation and culture worse for everyone.
At my old group, our bank paid so badly that all of the Americans lateraled to other banks, and the stuck internationals remained. This happened a few years in a row and now 90% of the associate and VP classes are stuck internationals. Hence there is no consequence for the bank to continue paying their people like garbage, as they know there will be a consistent cohort of people who will stay no matter how they are treated.
I view higher fees for H1Bs as a good thing for the above reason. It’s a step in the right direction to force banks to pay the market rate to their employees without the leverage to trap & lowball.
Believe JPM was once known for using this approach. If I recall the TMT group, many analyst and associates left post-covid, leaving primarily international hires who had limited options to transition elsewhere. Culture went down the drain, but ultimately, situations like this benefit no one.
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It’s long overdue that this issue is being addressed. The JPM media & communications platform has been dysfunctional for years, and it’s clear that without intervention whether from the bank itself or regulators little will change. Apparently a senior openly told underperforming juniors they could be replaced by talent from India or another country at a lower cost. The group has consistently prioritized international employees, fully aware that visa dependence limits their ability to escalate concerns to HR, creating an environment where seniors can overextend them with little fear of consequence which is very sad.
They stayed on not because they had limited options (from JPM IB seriously?) but because they are hungrier and more motivated to handle the grind and long hours. For many of them, they see it as a golden opportunity. That’s the truth that you can’t seem to accept.
This sounds like DB. Only ones who decide to stay for Associate and VP roles are all international, and have heard personally that they wish they had the same flexibility to leave for new roles but can’t given visa / sponsorship issues. They feel held hostage.
It’s easier for companies to just sponsor your green card. Which is a good thing
This sounds great in theory. But the permanent immigrant routes are seeing significantly more scrutiny than before and not many firms would sponsor your green card while the candidate is a student. There is also a wait time depending on the candidates nationality for (most) permanent visa categories.
How would they "bridge" the gap from graduation to actual employment (with or without the green card)? OPT still stands as of now, but:
More generally speaking, some of the functions a more junior staff member delivers could also be replaced by a mixed service group that is either off-shore or AI.
We already use AI in some of our teams to reduce labor intense work pieces.
It’s shitty for incoming candidates. For existing employees it’s easier to file for them. Agree with the near shoring, that’s a possible solution
I am Chinese and I know tons of Chinese/ABC students who can build a full LBO from scratch with detailed debt schedule, complex taxation, and return analysis. And yet, many of them cannot even secure an interview after hundred of networking email/coffeechat while I have seen some white man/women who cannot even use excel shortcut got hired by top BB/EB, what can I say to this fair world?
Apply to a Chinese banks then, or work to fix your own government
LBO does not exist in my country and we seemply do not value people who work in finance. Nothing needs to be fixed in my government where they are run by engineers not lawyers/bankers/liberal arts kids. If I were a engineer instead of a useless US MBA I would have been more than happy to go back to Shanghai/Shenzhen with offers from Tencent/Bilibili, which I don't have
You say what your compatriots in manufacturing and technology have been saying, and doing.
Create superior competitors (CATL, BYD, etc..) that will utterly dominate their western competitors. Just got back from a trade show in Shenzhen, and while I recognize China is a hard society to earn in, too many of you discount just how much better you are vs the morons you're arguing against. At this rate western hegenomy in economics and trade will utterly collapse, and you will force them into North American island position.
Have generational wealth, multiple passports, so the previous generation already had me covered. No side in this H1-B fight, but Chinese, unlike Indians or Nigerians, long term have nothing to worry about. Build better work cultures in China (I understand this is directly in opposition to the success the likes of BYD have had).
From a third world dump that borders China that has seen what you guys have done for us infrastructure wise already, and we're your most irrelevant trade partner. Keep busting white balls. The entire global south is with you, even the Indians will come around too it too.
I have worked with a lot of nice and respectful internationals. Now y’all are saying they are the ones ruining the culture. The culture in banking / finance is generally bad, and shouldn’t be tied to people’s background.
So for those on OPT right now and have not hit the H1B lottery, will their employment be safe until the OPT expires? Then it’s up to firm to figure out from there what type of visa to proceed with?
OPT wasn't altered, from what I could read.
It's just the higher salary requirements, more scrutiny in general, vetting in general is tougher than before, and the 100,000 $US fee PER YEAR.
International students can now only
Alright so if the OPT lasts 3 years, it just means for the time being the employer might not enter the lottery if it remains at 100k for the time being. However, there’s no specific reason for them to let us go before our OPT expires as it doesn’t cost them anything
TOTAL PATRIOT VICTORY
I don't understand half the words on this image.
But I also think it'll pass as a resolution somehow.
Rip Moelis SF
Already smells better
Hahahahahahahahaha
Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but on the white house website, this rule is not necessarily an EO, but a proclamation that temporarily blocking H-1B workers from entering the U.S. unless their employer pays a $100,000 fee: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/restriction-on-entry-of-certain-nonimmigrant-workers/
"the ENTRY into the States of aliens with H1B, is restricted, except for those aliens whose petitions are accompanied or supplemented by a payment of $100,000."
"This restriction shall expire, absent extension, 12 months after the effective date of this proclamation, which shall be 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on September 21, 2025. "
"The Secretary of Homeland Security shall restrict decisions on petitions not accompanied by a $100,000 payment for H-1B specialty occupation workers under section 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) of the INA, who are currently outside the United States, for 12 months"
Trump can certainly ask the Congress to draft/amend the current law, but it might take longer time to completely change the current H-1B policy, including imposing a mandatory fee.
There was indeed an EO signed by Trump yesterday, but about the Gold Card, which is not gonna be effective immediately, but it's more of an instruction to start designing a “Gold Card” concept. Typically things like this might take the Congress to changes the law, which would take a longer time to complete. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/the-gold-card/
"The Secretary of Commerce, in coordination with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall establish a “Gold Card” program"
"The Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall, within 90 days of the date of this order, take all necessary and appropriate steps to implement the Gold Card program."
yes, but this still makes it incredibly difficult for a lot of people during the next year. And they can just sign another one before this one expires.
Immigration is indeed a responsibility of an administration, regulating this area is their job.
While they can't make random changes in the law itself, they can make it really hard to apply the existing legal framework:
All of this leads to a significant decrease in issued visas.
I agree. Last time under Trump it was definitely tough, but at least it didn’t mean an automatic $100K annual fee or outright cancellation of H-1Bs (at this moment).
Clearly only a few people actually read the Proclamation. As of now, the facts are
Now while we can safely assume Trump will extend this is past 1 year if he doesn't receive serious backlash, there is very little chance this makes it through Congress as-is. Maybe you could get enough Democrats on board to support a change in visa categories and numbers as part of some larger compromise, but no way they'd support the $100,000 rule. Maybe they'd support a change to the minimum salary to be something like $100,000 from the current $65,000.
With midterm elections coming up soon, it's unlikely congress would do anything soon for sure.
I'm not sure. A major reason Democrats lost in 2024 was because they were being soft on immigration. I'm not saying it's going to happen, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were enough Democrats willing to vote for changes to the H1B program because of that. I doubt they'd support this entry fee specifically, but there are many other ways they can narrow the program.
It's been 319 days since the 2024 Election, and Election Day 2026 is 409 days away. If now is too close to the midterms, then we surely live in an era of perpetual elections.
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