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More than 30 people have applied for a lab technician job at West River Health Services in Hettinger, North Dakota, a thousand-person town in the rural southwestern part of the state.
Because they aren鈥檛 U.S. citizens, they would each need a visa.
West River and other companies used to pay up to $5,000 in fees to sponsor each H-1B visa for such workers.
The nonprofit hospital now has to pay $100,000 if it wants to hire one of the new applicants, who are all from the Philippines or Nigeria. Or it could spend money on an attorney to petition the government for an exemption from the new fee.
H-1B visas are for highly skilled foreign workers in fields 鈥 such as the chronically understaffed rural health system 鈥 that struggle to find enough American employees.
In September, President Donald Trump increased the visa fee to $100,000 for workers living outside the U.S. It doesn鈥檛 apply to foreign workers or students who were already in the U.S. on a visa.
His proclamation rails against the tech world鈥檚 use of H-1B workers, but the new fee applies to all fields.
鈥淭he health care industry wasn鈥檛 even considered. They鈥檙e going to be collateral damage, and to such an extreme degree that it was clearly not thought about at all,鈥 said Eram Alam, a Harvard associate professor whose examines the history of foreign doctors in the U.S.
H-1B applicants will receive a fee exemption only in an 鈥渆xtraordinarily rare circumstance.鈥
The , two , and asked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to grant categorical exemptions for the health care industry. The new cost will disproportionally harm rural communities that already struggle to afford and recruit enough providers, the groups argued.
DHS officials directed inquiries to the White House, which did not answer questions about individual waiver timelines or the possibility of an exemption for the health care industry.
Instead, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers sent a statement defending the new fee, saying it will 鈥減ut American workers first.鈥
Dozens of health care organizations have asked the Trump administration to shield the doctors, nurses, and techs they need to fill shortages from the president鈥檚 new $100,000 visa fee for skilled foreign workers. So far, there鈥檚 no sign of a reprieve.
