H-1B visa fees and approvals

Before the fee increase, the government charged a base fee of $215 to register for the H-1B visa lottery and $780 to employers sponsoring visa applicants. More than 400,000 H-1B visas were approved last year.

Why the impact on Indian workers may be limited

Indians are the largest recipients of H-1B visas. Although the new restrictions target many large outsourcing groups, the impact is likely to be small because the H-1B-to-permanent-resident route is out of reach for most Indians, given decades-long retention.

As of December, nearly 1 million Indians were waiting for employment-based permanent residency, according to an August study by the nonprofit National Policy Foundation.

Nasscom, India’s IT services lobby, said the number of employees transitioning to permanent residency through PERM is “relatively limited” because Indian technology companies have “significantly reduced their reliance on H-1B visas.”

Vance criticizes H-1B hiring practices

Vance said in comments Thursday that visas help companies reduce their U.S. workforce. He argued that some H-1B holders earn between $20,000 and $48,000 less than employed Americans in similar jobs.

Amazon, the largest user of H-1B visas, was not mentioned at the press conference. But Vance singled out Microsoft, referring to its U.S. permanent residency status, and said: “At the same time that the company benefits from 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards, it also laid off 6,000 American workers last year.”

Microsoft defends its visa applications

Microsoft’s stock price fell more than 1% following the announcement. The company said the visa applications Vance referred to were primarily “to extend or change the status” of existing employees.

“Microsoft will only submit H-1B applications to those who meet the strict criteria for this visa category,” the company said. “We pay our employees some of the highest compensation in the technology industry, and our wages are among the highest of all H-1B applicants.”

J-1 visa investigation announced

The White House also announced Thursday a fraud investigation into the use of J-1 student visas at nine U.S. universities, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford.

Satya Nadella receives National Medal of Innovation

In a separate event Thursday, the Trump administration awarded Microsoft’s Indian-born chief executive, Satya Nadella, the National Medal of Innovation.

He was honored along with South African-born Elon Musk and Taiwanese-born Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

Vance said there was no contradiction between the two announcements.

“Our message to Microsoft is, ‘You’re a great American company, but you have to hire great American workers.’”

Additional reporting by Michael Stott in New Delhi

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