Without the H-1B visa, the top ranks of Silicon Valley would look very different.
Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Tesla’s Elon Musk used the “specialised knowledge” visa to arrive or stay in the country. So the Trump administration’s unexpected decision on Friday to impose a $100,000 fee on every new application has sent shockwaves across the tech groups they lead.
Big Tech is among the biggest users of the programme, with tens of thousands of employees and their families dependent on them for legal status. That is partly to do with the tech industry’s reliance on Asian-born computer programmers: India accounts for about 70 per cent of all H-1Bs, with China second on 12 per cent.