U.S. President Donald Trump's plans to place $100,000 fees on H-1B visa applications will disproportionately harm America's startup space, founders and venture capitalists told CNBC this week.
H-1B visas — which allow companies to temporarily hire foreign workers in skilled occupations such as IT, healthcare and engineering — were already difficult to secure for U.S. startups, due to limited annual quotas.
Over the past year, Desmond Lim, CEO and co-founder of HR, payroll and hiring tech platform Workstream, said all of his startup's H1-B applications had been rejected — something he called "very disappointing" as he tries to secure more top engineering talent.
The year prior, however, Workstream did secure a couple of H-1B hires that Lim told CNBC were "life changing, both for the employees and for the company."
"As an early-stage startup, every hire is precious, and we only choose the best to go through the H-1B program, because it not only costs money, but also takes time," he added.
Now, securing this talent is set to become even harder. The White House plans to require companies to pay a $100,000 fee when submitting petitions for new H-1B visas, though many details remain unclear.
Lim said the fee would be too high to justify for early-stage companies like his, complicating recruitment strategies.