Part 6/11:
Amazon, known as the top H1B visa recipient with thousands of visas, could face application costs exceeding $1 billion if it applied for all current visas.
Microsoft with roughly 5,100 H1B visas, might incur costs approaching half a billion dollars just in application fees, prompting a reassessment of international hiring strategies.
This shift signals a move towards prioritizing top-tier talent—those with highly specialized skills—over mid-level or entry-level positions. The policy could incentivize tech firms to focus more on domestic hiring or invest more heavily in AI automation rather than relying on overseas labor—especially since hiring lower-skilled workers abroad becomes prohibitively expensive.