There’s been lots of discussion about which tech companies will be the biggest losers from President Donald Trump’s broad assault on H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers, including a $100,000 fee for each new visa recipient. But the impact could be felt first by universities, says Jeremy Neufeld, the director of immigration policy at the Institute for Progress, a nonpartisan Washington think tank.

That's because the fee won’t apply to companies until next March, when the annual lottery for the roughly 85,000 new commercial H-1B visas awarded each year, takes place. Meanwhile, universities and certain other research and not-for-profit organizations benefit from an exemption that allows them to apply for visas year round, outside the 85,000 cap or the lottery. “The universities are on the frontlines and this is just a pure tax on their pipeline,” declares Neufeld.

So far, at least, universities and other exempt groups have not been shielded from the $100,000 fee, though Trump’s proclamation announcing it did allow vague exceptions in the national interest. Previously, H-1B fees ran from $2,000 to $5,000, depending on the size of the employer, according to the American Immigration Council.

It’s not just the fee that could hit universities hard. Another part of the Trump Administration’s September H-1B attack is a proposal to shift the rules of the visa lottery to favor older (and hence, presumably higher-paid) workers. That makes it harder for foreign students who graduate from U.S. universities with PhDs and master’s degrees to stay here to work–which has always been part of the payoff of a U.S. education. Moreover, the H-1B proposal comes on top of rules changes the Administration proposed in August for F-1 student visas, which would put new time limits on these visas and make it harder for foreign graduates of U.S. colleges and universities to use the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program. OPT has allowed foreign students to stay after graduation and get work experience for one year, or three years if they majored in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) subjects.

Other Trump Administration policies are already reducing foreign student enrollment. Data from the U.S. International Trade Administration shows international student arrivals (except for from Canada and Mexico), were down 19% this past August from August of 2024, falling to 307,419. July arrivals were off 28% from the year before, to 76,519.........

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