DUBAI, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. administration's decision to raise the H-1B visa fee to 100,000 U.S. dollars marks a "radical shift" in U.S. immigration policy and undermines U.S. role as hub for advanced technology, a United Arab Emirates analyst said here on Tuesday.
In an interview with Xinhua, Mohanad Yakout, senior Middle East market analyst at financial services group Scope Markets, said the U.S. immigration policy had for decades gave companies in the U.S. "a competitive edge by bringing in innovative minds."
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed a proclamation raising the fee that companies pay to sponsor H-1B applicants to 100,000 dollars, saying the move is intended to ensure that the U.S. brings in highly skilled talent whom American workers cannot replace. The fees came into effect on Sunday.
Companies typically pay several thousand dollars for H-1B visas. This latest policy will substantially increase the cost for companies to hire foreign talent.
"The scale of the fee hike imposes unprecedented pressure on businesses, particularly technology firms that heavily rely on these visas to bridge gaps in the domestic labor market," Yakout said.
He noted that major corporations such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google have been among the biggest beneficiaries of professional immigration programs, but are now likely to face significant challenges.
"Recruitment costs will soar, pushing companies to reconsider their human resources strategies, whether by cutting the number of applicants or shifting development operations abroad," he said.
Such changes could slow the pace of innovation and delay product launches in critical sectors like artificial intelligence and cloud computing, Yakout said, adding that this would directly weigh on the stock performance of leading U.S. tech firms.
The impact, he said, is not confined to the U.S. market. Shares of Indian IT firms, which depend heavily on sending employees to work in the U.S., dropped sharply following the visa fee hike announcement, he noted.
The decision could also prompt skilled workers to turn to alternative destinations such as Canada and Europe, where immigration conditions are more flexible and costs are lower, giving those regions an advantage in the global competition for talent, Yakout said.
"Without more balanced policies, the long-term continuation of this measure could reshape the global innovation landscape and erode the U.S. historic position as the leading hub for advanced technology," he concluded. Enditem
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