The Trump administration has instituted a $100,000 worker visa application fee, giving Pitt a potential new cost to worry about.
H1-B visas are a type of non-immigrant visa that allows American companies and universities to hire international, highly specialized workers to work in the United States. An application for an H1-B visa previously cost $215, but the new fee for visa applications went into effect after Sept. 21.
Pitt had 215 H1-B visas approved — the 8th most approved H1-B visas for universities in the country — for fiscal year 2025. Pitt physicians had an additional 47 throughout the third quarter of the fiscal year of 2025, all before the new fee was put into place.
H1-B visas have an annual cap of 85,000, with 65,000 for regular workers and 20,000 reserved for workers with a U.S. equivalent of a masters degree or higher — making them highly competitive. Once this cap is reached, foreign workers have to go through a lottery system in order to attain an H1-B. Universities and nonprofits are exempt from this cap and can sponsor H1-B visas year round.
Other potential goals for the Trump administration concerning H1-B visas are to create stricter language regarding who actually qualifies as having a “speciality occupation” and limit what organizations are able to be cap-exempt.
Due to the lack of clarity surrounding cap-exempt employers, Pitt has been unable to make a concrete plan for the future of H1-B visas at the University, according to University spokesperson Jared Stonesifer.
“The University of Pittsburgh is gathering information about how the University may be impacted by the recently announced H-1B visa application processing fee,” Stonesifer said. “It remains unclear how the new fee will be imposed on institutions of higher education and nonprofits who are considered ‘cap-exempt’ employers.”
Pitt has faculty, staff and students who work at the University on H1-B visas across medicine, research, engineering and other areas of Pitt advancement. Stonesifer said Pitt H1-B workers in all roles across the University are being considered when thinking about next moves.
“International faculty, staff and students, including H1-B visa holders, are essential members of the University community,” Stonesifer said. “They provide valuable contributions to our education and research missions, and we are closely monitoring the situation with the aim to affordably preserve these roles.”
Lester Lusher, an associate professor in the Department of Economics, said if Pitt is required to pay this fee for new H1-B visa workers, the costs will be high.
“If Pitt is trying to hire faculty or researchers or whatnot, [paying the fee] would instantly make them way more expensive,” Lusher said. “The demand for that type of worker is going to go down.”
If the fee is implemented for higher education institutions, Lusher said it could reduce diversity in both the student and faculty populations at Pitt, which could have long-term implications.
“The attraction for international students to come get a degree in the U.S. is that there’s the possibility to stay here afterward and work,” Lusher said. “But if that channel is cut down a lot, you’re going to see foreign enrollment drop for sure.”
Lusher said the motivation for these policy changes is to help American workers and give them the positions that would be going to international workers with a visa.
“If we reduce labor competition in the form of foreign workers and immigrants, then that’s supposed to help make locals better off,” Lusher said.
Lusher said despite the potential positive motivations behind the fee, the negative effects of the new fee are going to be felt all over the country.
“It’s going to reduce our technological output, making things more expensive. American workers as consumers might be harmed because it’s reducing production,” Lusher said. “Non-American folks are definitely screwed by this, so it’s hard to defend.”
Sheila Vélez Martínez, an immigration law professor in the School of Law, said a large number of health care workers hold these visas and will also be impacted by this change.
“International medical students that are here and international medical graduates who are H1-B visa holders are an important part of the group of people that provide health care to rural areas,” Vélez Martínez said. “People always think about engineering, but there’s also another aspect of [this fee], and it’s health care providers.”
Vélez Martínez also said the impact of this new fee and the continued attack on immigration will have a drastic effect on the U.S.
“Higher education really is nurtured by international students and scholars. These decisions are to the detriment of the economic health of the United States, of the culture, the general environment, the ability to raise our children in a diverse environment and growing a community that understands the importance of diverse perspectives,” Vélez Martínez said. “All of that is being taken away. It’s bigger than just H1-Bs.”