The US tech industry is entering a period of real uncertainty around hiring. In September 2025, a new proposal surfaced that would attach a $100,000 fee to every new H-1B visa application, a jump so large that it immediately changed how companies think about bringing in international talent.
On one hand, the intent behind the policy is clear: protect US jobs and encourage companies to hire American workers by making foreign hires prohibitively expensive. On the other hand, innovation-driven businesses still depend on global talent for cutting-edge skills in areas like AI, cybersecurity, and advanced engineering – expertise often in short supply domestically.
This leaves many tech leaders in a difficult position. They still need highly specialized professionals to stay competitive, but one of the most dependable ways to access those experts is now under serious pressure.
In this article, we examine what the proposed $100K fee includes, how it may reshape hiring decisions, and what practical options companies have to adjust.
Understanding the H-1B landscape
To understand the impact of a $100K H-1B fee, it’s important to understand how the H-1B visa program works and why the tech sector has leaned on it so heavily.
What is the H-1B visa?
The H-1B visa is a US program for employing foreign workers in specialty occupations – typically roles requiring a bachelor’s degree or higher and specialized knowledge. Key features of the H-1B program include:
- Purpose: It was designed to help US companies fill critical skill gaps by accessing highly educated foreign talent, thereby fueling innovation and competitiveness in the economy. If a specialized role cannot be filled from the domestic workforce, H-1B provides a pathway to bring in an expert from abroad.
- Annual cap and lottery: Since the program’s inception, Congress has capped H-1B visas at 85,000 per year. Demand exceeds this supply, so the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) holds a lottery each year to randomly select petitions. For example, in the 2023 H-1B lottery, over 780,000 registrations competed for those 85,000 spots.
- Employer sponsorship: H-1Bs are employer-sponsored visas. A US company has to offer the job and petition on the worker’s behalf. The employer bears the administrative burden and costs, filing a petition that proves the role’s specialized nature and the candidate’s qualifications.
- Wage and labor protections: employers must attest they will pay the H-1B worker at least the prevailing wage for the role and not adversely affect US workers’ conditions. This is intended to ensure the visa is used to supplement (not undercut) the U.S. workforce with needed skills.
- Typical duration: H-1B visas are generally granted for an initial 3-year period, extendable to 6 years. This allows companies to benefit from the worker’s expertise for several years on critical projects.
- Current costs: Obtaining an H-1B already involves multiple fees – government filing charges, an anti-fraud fee, required training fees, and often legal fees – which typically sum up to $2,000–$5,000 per petition for employers. This existing cost covers paperwork and processing; it is a far cry from the new $100K surcharge being proposed.
Why it’s critical for US tech
The H-1B program has become a cornerstone of the American tech ecosystem for several reasons:
- Filling specialized skill gaps: The US has long struggled to find enough experts in fields like AI, machine learning, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and data science. In these fast-evolving domains, demand for talent far outstrips the supply of qualified domestic candidates.
- Driving innovation and competitiveness: Many H-1B professionals come in with advanced degrees or very specific experience that companies need for complex projects. Their contributions show up everywhere, from new product development to patent filings. In fact, immigrant entrepreneurs have founded over half of America’s billion-dollar startups.
- Addressing bottlenecks: When teams cannot hire the engineers they need, work slows down or simply does not move forward. The H-1B process has often helped companies avoid these slowdowns by giving them a way to hire someone who can get the job done.
In summary, the H-1B visa has been a key enabler of US tech leadership, helping companies access world-class expertise to build innovative products and teams.
What the $100K H-1B visa fee means for tech hiring
The introduction of a $100,000 fee for new H-1B visa petitions represents a big change for companies that rely on international talent. Below, we break down the key implications of this rule on tech hiring.
- A new barrier to entry: Practically, this applies to any first-time H-1B application for a candidate living outside the US and seeking to come work here. For employers looking to sponsor a talented engineer from overseas, the upfront cost just ballooned. A process that might have cost ~$5K in fees now requires $100K per hire, before even accounting for the candidate’s salary, relocation, etc.
It’s also important to note that the proposed fee targets new H-1B petitions filed from outside the country. F-1 students and other visa holders already in the US who are switching to H-1B status would not be subject to this surcharge, according to recent USCIS clarification.
- Sticker shock for employers: Large tech companies that routinely hire hundreds or thousands of H-1B workers (Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and the like) would face tens to hundreds of millions in extra expenses if they continue at the status quo. For startups and midsize firms, even one or two such hires may be out of reach.
- Industries most impacted: The industries most reliant on specialized tech talent will bear the brunt of this change. This includes, but is not limited to, the core tech sector itself, along with highly digitized fields such as finance (fintech), healthcare technology, and any domain at the forefront of AI, machine learning, and cybersecurity development.
- Product delays and higher costs: In the near term, companies that planned to hire H-1B workers for ongoing projects face tough choices. Paying an extra $100K will blow project budgets; not paying means potentially months of delay to find a domestic hire (if one can be found at all). Additionally, with a tighter talent supply domestically, salaries for in-demand tech roles may rise even further. Small companies might find themselves priced out of hiring top engineers altogether, as they can’t afford either the visa fee or the inflated local salaries.
- Legal challenges and uncertainty: It’s worth noting that the $100K fee is facing court challenges. The US Chamber of Commerce and a coalition of business and healthcare groups have filed lawsuits calling the fee unlawful. There’s a chance the policy could be overturned or modified. However, companies cannot bank on that outcome in the immediate future. The prudent approach is to assume visa costs and restrictions will remain high and build a talent strategy that is resilient to such shocks.
Adapting to the new reality
If the cost of hiring through the H-1B program becomes unrealistic, companies will need other ways to bring in strong technical talent. The positive side is that skilled engineers are not limited to one country. There are several practical paths that many teams already rely on.
Offshore development centers
One option is to build a dedicated engineering team in another country where the talent pool is strong. This usually means working with a local partner who helps set up and manage the operation. A lot of US and UK companies have gone this route, especially in Eastern Europe, because the region has a large number of highly trained software engineers.
An offshore development center works almost like a remote branch of your company. The team focuses only on your projects and follows your processes, so it becomes a long-term extension of your organization rather than a one-off arrangement.
Staff augmentation with remote experts
If you don’t want to establish a full offshore center, another flexible route is remote staff augmentation. Here, you bring in individual engineers or small groups who work remotely from their home country but join your existing team as if they were in the same office.
Many reliable software development firms offer this kind of support and provide vetted engineers with specific skill sets. It could be anything from a senior AI specialist to a front-end developer you need for a few months. This approach works well when timelines are tight or when you need expertise that is difficult to find locally.
Project-based outsourcing to trusted partners
For some initiatives, it may make sense to outsource an entire project or development segment to an external partner company. Rather than hiring individual contributors, you contract a software development firm to deliver a defined product or feature.
A good outsourcing partner takes responsibility for assembling the right talent and managing the work, which removes the hiring burden from your side. The main thing that determines success here is choosing a partner you can trust to maintain quality and communicate clearly.
Benefits of flexible global development models
All of the above models share some common benefits:
- Access to specialized skills on demand: By reaching into international markets, companies can find high-level experts (including enterprise-level specialists) that might be scarce or overly competitive locally. Instead of being limited to who is able to immigrate, organizations gain a wider talent pool of vetted professionals worldwide.
- Cost efficiency: Hiring talent abroad often reduces overall costs. Salaries and operational expenses in many strong tech regions are lower than what companies pay in major US tech hubs. This allows teams to do more with the same budget, especially when R&D spending is tight.
- Scalability and agility: Distributed development models offer a high degree of scalability. Companies can rapidly scale teams up or down in response to market shifts, project demands, or unforeseen challenges.
These models are not just quick fixes or something to fall back on when visas get complicated. Many companies eventually discover that distributed development becomes part of how they operate day to day.
In the next section, we will look at how these approaches not only help with the immediate challenge but also make tech organizations more resilient in the long run.
Future-proofing your tech projects: mitigating H-1B risks with flexible development models
The talk about a $100k visa fee has been a jolt for many tech leaders. It underscores a broader lesson: you cannot build your whole hiring strategy around the idea that bringing people into the US will always be easy or affordable. The rules shift too often, and sometimes without warning.
Because of this, more companies are starting to rethink how they grow their teams. Instead of depending on visas, they are building a mix of local and global talent from the start.
Distributed development as strategic advantage
By having talent spread across different regions, a company becomes far less vulnerable to any single country’s policy changes. If US immigration rules tighten, the work can continue abroad with minimal disruption. Conversely, if opportunities arise to bring certain people on-site later, those can be handled strategically on a case-by-case basis.
The key is that the company is no longer entirely dependent on H-1B visas or any one labor market to execute its projects.
Global teams enhancing innovation
Moreover, distributed development has proven to be a catalyst for innovation and resilience in its own right. Global teams inherently bring diverse perspectives and ideas to the table, and the combination can spark creative solutions.
Many companies report that having multicultural, multi-location teams leads to more robust designs and a broader outlook on product development (for example, building with a global user base in mind from the start).
There is also a practical benefit. Work does not stop when one office ends its day. With teams spread across time zones, progress can continue almost around the clock. One group hands off work, another picks it up, and issues get resolved faster simply because someone is always online.
Eastern Peak’s perspective
At Eastern Peak, we have spent many years helping companies of all sizes build reliable and scalable development teams.
Some clients come to us with an existing team that needs extra support. Others start from zero and want to launch an entirely new product. In both cases, we match them with engineers, designers, and product specialists who have real experience delivering complex digital solutions in different industries.
Two delivery models to fit different needs:
- Team extension model: Clients work with the remote engineers directly. Developers operate as part of the client’s team; they join the team’s usual routine and pick up the same tools, meetings, and habits the client already has in place. After a bit of onboarding, they function like any other team member.
The client keeps control of planning and day-to-day decisions, and the extended team follows the same direction as the in-house group. This model gives clients full control while benefiting from Eastern Peak’s recruiting, vetting, and operational support.
- Managed projects model: Some clients do not want to manage every detail of development. In those cases, we take the lead. A dedicated project manager works with the client, sets the plan, and makes sure the work stays on track.
Our team handles the design, development, testing, and all the coordination. The client focuses on the outcome, and we handle the execution. This model is ideal for companies seeking a hands-off, results-oriented delivery partner.
Conclusion
The idea of a $100K fee for an H-1B visa changes the hiring landscape in a big way. It makes it clear that depending on traditional visas alone may not be a practical long-term plan for many tech teams.
The situation is challenging, but it also pushes companies to look at other ways of building and scaling their talent base. Global and distributed teams are becoming a realistic path for getting the skills that are difficult to find locally.
At Eastern Peak, we have seen for years that great ideas and strong engineering talent can come from anywhere. Teams do not have to sit in the same building to work well together.
If you are rethinking how to structure your development efforts and want to look at different options, contact us; we are always open to discussing what might work best for your goals.
Read also: