By Donovan Erskine
Copyright shacknews
Donald Trump recently announced a massive increase to the H-1B visa fee. While companies previously paid somewhere between $2,000 and $5,000 to hire employees that require a work visa, that price tag will soon skyrocket to $100,000. A couple of high-profile tech CEOs weighed in on the announcement with surprisingly positive thoughts.
Jensen Huang and Sam Altman, the CEOs of NVIDIA and OpenAI, respectively, spoke with CNBC following Trump’s announcement regarding the H-1B visa. Both of them echoed positive sentiments about the proposed change and talked about how it will affect their business. “We want all the brightest minds to come to the U.S. and remember immigration is the foundation of the American Dream,” Huang said. “We represent the American Dream. And so I think immigration is really important to our company and is really important to our nation’s future, and I’m glad to see President Trump making the moves he’s making.”
Sam Altman shared a similar opinion, stating that “we need to get the smartest people in the country, and streamlining that process and also sort of outlining financial incentives seems good to me.”
Under the new rules, companies will be required to present proof of payment before filing an H-1B petition. The new fee will only apply to new H-1B applicants and won’t impact existing visa-holders. It’s just the latest decision by Donald Trump that’ll have a sweeping impact on the technology industry.
