在 2020 年 5 月至 2024 年 5 月间，塔塔咨询（TCS）、印孚瑟斯（Infosys）与高知特（Cognizant）三家公司近 90% 的新 H-1B 受聘者是在美国驻外领事馆获批，若费用当时已实施，将额外增加数亿美元成本。印孚瑟斯受影响比例逾 93%，约 10,400 人，累计签证费超过 10 亿美元；塔塔约 6,500 人（82%）；高知特逾 5,600 人（89%）。
H-1B 每年约 85,000 个名额；2020 年引入的线上抽签登记促使申请量飙升，2024 财年合格登记数突破 758,000。彭博数据显示，过去四年新聘 H-1B 中「在境外」来源占比超过四成。诉讼挑战正在进行且本周有听证；业界预期需求将大幅下滑并加速离岸配置。Lawfully 估计，费用加上加权抽签改革，明年登记数可能下降 30%–50%，并促使企业把更多投资与职位转向印度等人才供给地。
A proposed $100,000 fee on new H-1B workers hired from outside the US is described as the Trump administration’s toughest constraint so far, with outsized impact on IT outsourcing and staffing firms that often act as visa middlemen.
From May 2020 to May 2024, nearly 90% of new H-1B hires at Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, and Cognizant were approved at US consulates, implying hundreds of millions in added costs if the fee had applied. Infosys would have faced the charge for over 93% of new hires—about 10,400 workers—totaling more than $1 billion; Tata about 6,500 workers (82%); Cognizant more than 5,600 (89%).
The H-1B program has about 85,000 slots a year, while lottery registrations surged after a 2020 online process, reaching over 758,000 eligible entries in fiscal 2024. Data show more than 4 in 10 new H-1B hires were sourced from abroad, so the fee could sharply reduce demand and push work offshore amid ongoing lawsuits and a hearing this week. Lawfully projects next year’s entries could fall 30%–50% when combined with a proposed weighted-lottery overhaul, reinforcing incentives to shift hiring and investment to India over the next several years.
