Why the new H-1B policy helps outsourcers, not startups

Equity

TechCrunch

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4.2 • 365 Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Trump administration recently announced a massive change to the H-1B visa program, raising the application fee from $2,000-$5,000 to $100,000 per visa. The change has sent shockwaves through the startup world, with founders warning it could price them out of hiring international talent and undermine U.S. innovation. Today on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Dominic-Madori Davis was joined by Jeremy Neufeld, the Director of Immigration Policy at the Institute for Progress, to break down what this H-1B change means for startups, founders, and the future of tech talent in America. Listen to the full episode to hear about: The massive loophole that lets 80% of H-1B applicants skip the $100,000 fee entirely Why the new wage system could give more visa slots to experienced acupuncturists than fresh AI PhD grads making $200K Why universities and national labs are stuck in limbo, knowing they have to pay but not knowing how Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a paid ad by Fidelity Private Shares.
0:03.0	A messy or missing cap table might not just slow you down.
0:06.0	It could cost you your next fundraising round.
0:08.0	Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch's flagship podcast about the business of startups.
0:13.0	I'm Dominic Midori Davis, and this is the episode where we bring on industry experts to help us dive deep into tech world trends.
0:19.0	The Trump administration recently announced a
0:21.8	massive change to the H-1B visa program, raising the application fee from around $2,000 to $100,000 per visa.
0:29.3	The change has sent shockwaves through the startup world, with founders warning it could
0:32.8	price them out of hiring international talent and undermine U.S. innovation.
0:36.8	Today, we're joined by Jeremy Newfield, the Director of Immigration Policy at the Institute for
0:41.4	Progress, to break down what this H-1B change means for startups, founders, and the future
0:46.0	of tech talent in America.
0:53.5	Hi, Jeremy, welcome to the show.
0:55.4	Thanks so much for having me.
0:56.7	Yeah, I'm really excited to dive into this about the H-1B visa situation that has thrown off,
1:03.9	or at least the price, the increased price, has thrown off a lot of people, specifically
1:08.0	in the startup world.
1:09.4	And so I would love to talk to you about that just for viewers or audiences who might not know what the H-1B visa is. Can you explain what
1:16.4	that is? Yeah, the H-1B visa is our flagship high-skilled immigration visa. So this is the main
1:23.1	way that people with at least a bachelor's degree, so highly educated immigrants first are coming
1:28.4	into the United States to work and enter the workforce. There's about 85,000 visas each year
1:33.4	that are made available to the private sector. Way more workers are attempting to get those visas
	...

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