A $100,000-per-worker visa fee tips the balance to Big Tech

After President Donald Trump signed a proclamation Friday to add a $100,000 fee for new applicants of H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers, two technology leaders reacted in opposite ways.

- RYAN MAG NATALLIE ROCHA

The offices of Delve, an artificial intelligence start-up in San Francisco. The company's chief operating officer said she was grappling with what a change in H-1B visa fees meant for Delve's hiring.

(NYT)

Selin Kocalar, 21, the chief operating officer of Delve, an artificial intelligence startup in San Francisco, learned of the change from a new employee who had just been approved for the H-1B visa. She said she was grappling with what the fee meant for hiring at her 23-person company, which has raised $35 million in funding.

“As a startup, you're always tight for cash,’ she said. “So you can’t go out and spend a bunch of money or have that kind of luxury that you’d see at a bigger company”

In contrast, Reed Hastings, the chair and co-founder of Netflix, did not blink. The $100,000 fee (about 3.19 million baht) “is a great solution,’ he posted on social media Sunday. “It will mean H-1B is used just for very high value jobs.” Netflix, which has about 14,000 employees, pulled in more than $11 billion in revenue and $3.1 billion in profit in the most recent quarter.