Rural health providers hit by Trump’s $100,000 visa fee

More than 30 people applied for a lab technician job at West River Health Services in Hettinger, North Dakota, a town of 1,000 people in the rural southwestern part of the state.

Because they are not US citizens, each will need a visa.

West River and other companies used to pay fees of up to $5,000 to sponsor each H-1B visa for these workers.

The nonprofit hospital now has to pay $100,000 if it wants to hire one of the new applicants, all of whom are from the Philippines or Nigeria. Or she could spend the money on a lawyer to petition the government for relief from the new fees.

H-1B visas are for highly skilled foreign workers in fields — such as a chronically understaffed rural health system — who are struggling to find enough U.S. employees.

In September, President Donald Trump raised visa fees to $100,000 for workers living outside the United States. This does not apply to foreign workers or students who are already in the United States on a visa.

His declaration opposes the tech world’s use of H-1B workers, but the new fees apply across the board.

“The health care industry has not even been taken into account,” said Iram Allam, an associate professor at Harvard University. “It would be collateral damage, to such an extent that it is clear that it was not considered at all.” New book Examines the history of foreign doctors in the United States

Federal guidance says H-1B visa applicants will not receive a fee waiver except in “extremely rare circumstances.”

the American Hospital Associationtwo National rural health organizationsand More than 50 medical associations She asked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to grant categorical exemptions for the health care industry. The groups said the new cost would disproportionately hurt rural communities that already struggle to afford and hire enough providers.

DHS officials directed inquiries to the White House, which did not respond to questions about timelines for individual exemptions or the possibility of an exemption for the health care industry.

Instead, White House spokesman Taylor Rogers sent a statement defending the new tariffs, saying they would “put American workers first.”