Atlanta business owner warns $100K H-1B visa fee will crush hiring plans
Immigration rules are reshaping the American workplace, and one Atlanta entrepreneur's story shows just how much the changes could cost.
For Sunitha Shivaram, the American dream began three decades ago when she left India for the United States. After years on an H-1B visa, she became a U.S. citizen and launched Sunray Corp., an IT consulting and staffing firm she has run in Atlanta for more than 20 years.
"You work hard, be smart, find any a bit of luck," Shivaram said. "So everything, it had to fall in place."
Her company now employs about 25 people, nearly half of them on H-1B visas. She hires workers from China, Brazil, Germany, the U.K., and the U.S. But new federal rules could force her to rethink that model.
The Trump administration is raising the fee for each new H-1B visa to $100,000, 10 times higher than before.
"$100,000 is a lot of money, and we have no plans of paying that kind of money for a visa," Shivaram said. "We have to make things work, and there are challenges. We need to overcome the challenges legally."
Immigration attorney Navneet Chugh says small and mid-sized firms may struggle with the steep increase.
"The technology workers, agencies, they don't have a profit of $100,000 per employee that they place," Chugh said. "Even if the H-1 visas were for three years, and you say, okay, let's advertise the $100,000 over three years, and maybe they can recover $33,000 per year, but maybe that's about what their margin is. And then you don't have a guarantee that they're going to hang around."
Each year, the U.S. approves about 85,000 H-1B visas. An estimated 700,000 people nationwide hold one, a fraction of the country's 170 million workers.
"It's become a hot button issue that, oh, these 85,000 people are taking millions of jobs," Chugh said. "It's only 85,000 coming in, and 85,000 don't even come in by the time they get their visa."
Despite the changes, Shivaram said her focus will remain on talent while finding ways to adapt to whatever rules come next.
"As a businesswoman, I'll have to think of ways how to grow the company," she said. "How to, you know, navigate these hurdles."
She still believes in the American dream and hopes the next generation of innovators will get their chance to build it.