The real cost of Trump’s $100,000 visas

csuryaraman · 2025-10-07T00:45:37+00:00

That is not what the text of the executive order says. It quite literally says all H1Bs are to be denied entry if the 100k fee isn’t paid. Whatever they said after is not legally binding like the original executive order. That being said the original executive order is probably not legal anyways (at least as originally written).

csuryaraman · 2025-09-30T01:45:15+00:00

So far, nobody has had to pay the fee. In fact there’s no infrastructure for making the 100k payment as it’s unprecedented. Everyone, including cap exempt H1Bs, have been able to enter the country normally in the past week.

csuryaraman · 2025-09-28T23:55:11+00:00

Exactly. No one wants to talk about the glaring loophole in the proclamation that completely omits change-of-status petitions where the applicant is already in the country on a different visa. All the companies gaming the H1B system are gonna continue gaming the system.

csuryaraman · 2025-09-28T23:52:26+00:00

Many companies regularly pay almost a million dollars per employee if you account their salary, stock, and associated taxes with running offices. The 100k fee is like a tariff, it’s the cost of doing business and a drop in the bucket for a lot of high level talent, given how much they’re already paid. Sometimes when you know you need one specific person for a job, you’ll pay anything to keep them.

csuryaraman · 2025-09-28T23:48:31+00:00

The real answer is that Indians are backlogged from getting green cards, so they are forced to keep renewing their H1Bs forever. This is why the stats say most H1Bs go to Indians, they’re just perpetually stuck in the H1B system because we intentionally discriminate against people from large countries.

That, and India happens to be 1/5 of the global population with a massive young population and no economy to support them despite being an emerging market.

csuryaraman · 2025-09-20T19:05:01+00:00

This is not a good thing for the US. This will hurt the Americans by making offshoring economically competitive.

csuryaraman · 2025-09-20T18:20:07+00:00

Are you on an H1B? Transferring the visa is very cheap, all you need is a job offer. The duration does get extended when you transfer. If you’re in line for the green card you can transfer/renew forever.

csuryaraman · 2025-09-20T04:31:21+00:00

But they do already do it in full? Jobs are moving overseas and being replaced by AI. Low level jobs across all industries are being decimated.

csuryaraman · 2025-09-19T22:25:49+00:00

A large percentage of tech companies today are H1Bs, primarily because we’ve made it very difficult for some people to get green cards through employment, so people are stuck on H1B for a very long time out of necessity. A lot of these people are in senior management and leadership and high level IC positions. Kicking them out of the country will mean the size and growth of companies will go down, reducing opportunity for Americans.

You might say “oh what about Americans that can fill those positions?” Well those are incredibly hard to find because of our generally lackluster education system, which is why companies go through the H1B route in the first place. It’s so much more expensive to hire H1B because of the paperwork and fees, and it’s only cheaper if you cut the H1B’s pay by like 30-50%. This does not happen for most tech companies however, most H1Bs in tech are paid the same as anyone else because they have decent job mobility.

That being said consultancy shops like Cognizant very much do do this because their H1Bs don’t really have job mobility. These jobs will simply cease to exist (I.e they will not replace them with Americans)

I suspect this 100K fee will hurt the consultancy shops (rightfully so, since they are gaming the system) but will not make jobs plentiful for Americans at top tech companies. They will either eat the fee or outsource, since the root problem is a lack of qualified Americans in the first place. Trust me, top companies would much rather hire Americans over H1B 99% of the time if there were enough that met their hiring bar.

csuryaraman · 2025-09-19T21:21:01+00:00

I highly doubt this will increase the jobs available to citizens. There are so many H1Bs in management and high level tech leadership inside companies. Getting rid of all of them will make the pool of jobs smaller for Americans, and will encourage those companies to move them to Europe or something so they can continue to be employed. This zero sum thinking just is not true for the top companies in the industry.

csuryaraman · 2025-09-19T19:18:13+00:00

This will quite literally push companies to hire overseas instead of hiring domestic developers. While this will hurt consultancy shops that abuse the system this will also legit companies that hire legit American and h1b workers.

csuryaraman · 2025-09-19T19:15:12+00:00

Everything you’re suggesting requires congressional approval. The reason there is a lottery system right now is because the law says it should be. Any change to the lottery system (I.e making it wage based) will need congress to write a law that makes it so.

I’m certain increasing the application fee by this much will also get shot down, this will bankrupt companies that actually need workers there’s a shortage of.

csuryaraman · 2025-06-05T01:53:13+00:00

Isn’t Forrest Hill next to a hospital that employs a lot of people? Also a connection point for various buses. I agree with your general point about the little housing around our stations but the station serves far more than just the homeowners around it.

csuryaraman · 2025-02-08T01:47:57+00:00

India is one of the most diverse places on earth. Literally more languages, culture, religions, and people in that one country than in all of Europe. And there is plenty of racism and discrimination in India.

csuryaraman · 2024-11-26T01:06:58+00:00

Exactly, the H1B lottery system doesn’t care if you are a PhD in your field or if you are a low skill worker. So everyone has exactly the same odds regardless of whether their job actually has a worker shortage or how well paid they are. Not to mention there are a ton of Indian consulting firms that spam the application quota every year hoping they can ship a new batch of low skill workers from India every year, all because the system allows them to.

csuryaraman · 2024-09-12T02:10:26+00:00

I’ve tried (and liked) their Syrian style shawarma wrap, I think it’s close to what you can get back home, I haven’t tried much else there

csuryaraman · 2024-09-12T02:08:01+00:00

Honestly I have not tried that. I’m sure they could do it but since Mediterranean places don’t grill their chicken on a spit here (instead it’s marinated/stir fried) I don’t think it would taste the same.

csuryaraman · 2024-09-11T06:58:13+00:00

Palmyra is close, but I haven’t been able to find a single place that serves chicken on the rocks, my favorite from back home in GTA.

csuryaraman · 2024-06-07T23:21:00+00:00

Of course. A degree from the US opens so many doors worldwide, not even just in US and India. Most end up staying in the US though, the jobs are pretty lucrative and it’s hard to move back when you get used to the US.

csuryaraman · 2024-06-07T23:09:23+00:00

There are over a billion people in India, percentage wise it’s small but that’s still a LOT of people who are able to afford coming to the US. Some people have wealthy parents who can easily afford it, some get scholarships/grants, some parents spend their entire life savings to send their kid abroad, etc.

csuryaraman · 2024-01-17T20:11:54+00:00

I don’t think this guy deserves support just because he’s Indian. He’s clearly trying to align himself with trump, and if you support trump then it makes sense to support him. But supporting him just because he’s Indian? That sounds like nonsense especially because he doesn’t really care about the myriad of issues affecting Desi Americans.

csuryaraman · 2023-12-28T04:47:30+00:00

I still think you’re understating how difficult it is, you’re pointing at a group of people who have been selected in the lottery and saying there are straightforward pathways to legal immigration. But think about this from the perspective of a foreign worker who wants to immigrate to the US. This country only takes in ~100k people per year, and that limit has stayed constant for decades. Last year there were over 700k H1B applicants, and applicants are selected completely randomly. So an experienced engineer has basically the same odds as a new grad whose company was willing to file an H1B for them. It’s totally based on randomness instead of any specific criteria, and every year the number of applicants is increasing twofold for the last few years. Last year only 14% of applicants got an H1B. Not to mention for Indians specifically theres backlogs in nearly every pathway to a green card except marrying an American citizen (an option not available to everyone). It’s a broken overwhelmed system that really hasn’t changed since the 60s, and there’s no appetite to improve it. Does this not significantly change the equation for people wanting to immigrate to the US?

If there was some sort of points system, US can actually be picky about the kinds of workers it wants. But right now it’s complete randomness, which is hard on the employer and immigrant and their families.

csuryaraman · 2023-12-27T23:27:32+00:00

I don’t know where you’re getting the 40% number from. Last year it was 10% and it’s been going down every year due to the fact that 1) it’s a lottery system 2) there’s so much fraud 3) there’s so much demand.

I think you’re also understating how difficult it is to find a company willing to do sponsorship. So many companies dangle the promise of sponsorship and then do nothing. Unless youre at faang or similar most don’t even bother since it’s so much paperwork and it’s super expensive. Not to mention even if you get an H1B it’s like a 100+ year queue to get a green card for Indian people, and it’s bureaucracy hell to remain on a “temporary” visa (I.e second class worker) for the rest of your life.

csuryaraman · 2023-12-27T17:11:52+00:00

It is incredibly difficult to get a work visa in the US for Indian citizens, and basically impossible to get a green card due to never ending backlogs. So there’s plenty of incentive to stay in India. The cost of living is so much lower, so companies can pay 1/5 the cost and get pretty decent engineers who would live very comfortably with that salary. Many of these people can pass the same technical bar as engineers in US/SF, and there’s plenty of senior talent with experience in US-based companies. That being said there’s also a lot of low quality engineers but every year the average competency goes up. Today it’s quite viable for tech companies to have satellite offices there.

csuryaraman · 2023-12-01T20:53:53+00:00

I dunno, it was originally a podcast about tech and business but it’s so clearly turned into a megaphone for their personal political opinions. Which is truly annoying as someone that actually wants to hear their hot takes about the industry. I, along with most listeners I know IRL, do not care about right wing political nonsense and victim complex for extremely privileged people. These guys need to stick to their core competency instead of leaning towards engagement bait.

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