US Employers Could offshore Jobs Rather than Paying H-1b Visa Fees

The Higher Price Tag for Coveted H-1b Visas Might Drive Up Employers’ Costs, But Not Necessarily Their Appetite for US Workers.

That’s one Possible Result of the Trump Administration’s Recent Decision to Raise the Cost of These Special Visas, Meant for Skilled Workers That Employers Can’t Find in the US, to $ 100,000, Researchers Who Study the Issue Told Business Insider.

Faced with Higher Costs to Bring in Foreign Workers, Some US Firms Could Look Oversseas for Remote Workers before they Turn to domestic ones. That woldn’t be great news for the us Job Market.

On top of that, if the overall us Economy is weakened by a drop in skilled foreign workers – and innovation more broadly – that cououl us grown and cut demand for a range, these experts said.

That Waled Run Counter to the Aims of President Donald Trump, who said the changes are to push emptyers to Hire US Workers than International Ons.

The President’s Actions Discourage Companies From “Spamming the System and Driving Down American Wages,” White House Spokesperson Taylor Rogers Told Business Insider in an Email.

“No ‘Economic Study’ Can Change the Reality Lived by MANY Americans Across the Country Who Bore the Massive Abuse of the H1-B System,” Rogers Said.

The Changes to H-1b Visas Will Likely Ripple Through the Economy Becouse, Right Now, US Employers Are Bringing in Up to 85,000 International Workers A Year the program.

Business insider spoke with five labor market observers about the impact of the fee hikes.

Do Boost to offshoring

Most Research suggests that companies don’t respond to Visa restrictions by Hiring More Local Workers, Britta Glennon, An Assistant Professor of Management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Told Business Insider.

Some US Multinational Companies are already USSINIST STRATEGIES TO OFFSHORE Jobs, Said. With the Latest H-1b Changes, “they’re just going to intensify that,” Glennon Said.

“Unless there is a strong Need for say to be in the us, they’re probably going to try to offshore,” She said, reference to multinational firms.

Glennon Found fore for Every H-1b Visa That Large US Companies with Oversseas Operations Didn’t Get, They Hirhed About 0.4 Workers Abroad. For the firms that were al -ends set up to favor those oversseas operations, the ratio rose to about 0.9.

If Companies will hire more US Workers, it’s offen not a one-to-ion ratio for every h-1b visa that’s Lost, Glennon Said.

How Foreign Workers Affect Local Demand

Casual Observes often assumers that there is a fixed set of jobs in the us, Said Glennon. Instead, what offen plays out we forens a workshore in the US is that it is the emploment grasses the presence of the foreign workers added demand in the economy.

That, ultimately, can lead to an increse in overall Employment Rather than a SCENARIO WHERE A Foreign Employe Simply Takes A Role That Have otherwise Gone to a US Worker.

“There’s Sort of a multiplier going on here,” Glennon Said.

She Said the H-1b Changes Are Likely to Dispropportationly Hurt Employers Such As Startups and Universities. They won’t have the same resources to computete with tech or big financial institutions, for example, which tend to relay on H-1bs.

Break wage media For H-1b Workers Was $ 120,000 As of Late 2024, Accounting to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, A Federal Agency. That’s roughly double the Pay media of all US workers.

Madeline Zavodny, An Economics Professor at the University of North Florida, Told Business Insider that if US Employers Bring in Fewer H-1b Workers, That Could Demand for Role Support Those-People in Hr, Marketing, and Other It.

“Americans Should Be Very Concerned,” Zavodny Said.

Zavodny Said that for Some Early-Career, but not entry-level workers, HAVE ABITY TO SWAP IN OTHER US Employees when they can’t get h-1b visas. For Other Workers, Zavodny Said, The Visa DOESN’T TE TO TAKE US WORKERS WOULD BE LIKELY TO FILE AND INSTTEAD LEADS TO MORE HARING OVERALL.

Wharton’s Glennon Said That Extensive Research Shows that Skilled Immigrants Punch Above Their Weight It Comes to Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

One Review Found that, As of 2025, Some 46% of Fortune 500 Companies were founded by immigrants or their children.

Trying to get Companies to Hire US WORKERS RATHER THAN THE ONES WHO SKILLED – REGARDLESS OF WHERE THEY COME FROM – RISKS DAMAGING THE COUNTRY’S Competitiveness in Areas Like Innovation, Steven Durlauf, Who Runs the Center for Reseearch on Wealth and Onheat University of Chicago, Told Business Insider.

Changing the program

Not all observers see risk from the new h1-b setup. Ronil Hira, an Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at Howard University, Said Other Recent Changes ENACTED BY Trump, Including an Efffort to Ensure Employers Are Complying with Rules for H-1b Visas, Will Improve the Skill, Wages, and Working Conditions. in the h-1b program. That Wold Ultimately be a Win for the US Economy and Its Workers, he Said.

Hal Salzman, A Rutgers University Professor of Planning and Public Policy, Said That The H-1b Program Offen Brings in Workers Who Will Accept Below-Markt Wages.

He Told Business Insider That Salaries Have Been Generally Flat for About Two Decades in Areas Where Workers Are Concentrated. SALZMAN DOESN’t Expect that H-1b Restrictions Will Result in Companies Shifting IT Jobs Offshore, For Example, If Doing So Could Reduce ‘Labor Costs.

“If they Could have done it, they would have done 20 years ago,” He Said, Refring to Large US Companies. Ins house, Salzman Said, some offshore companies have expanded their workforces in the us.

One Reason Its Not Easy to OffShore, Salzman Said, is that in Order to Make Operations Work, Employers offten Need Roughly One-Third of their workers in the us. That means it places a practical limit on the Share of workers that a company couuld item Elsewhere.

Zavodny, from the University of North Florida, Said, Howver, that the $ 100,000 Price Tag Push Some Organizations to Look Abroad.

“That’s a lot of Money for Worker,” She Said.

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