The new $100,000 application fee for H-1B visas and a proposed overhaul of the visa lottery poses severe repercussions for healthcare access by Americans. According to experts, restricting the foreign labor pool worsens the already existing labor shortage in the healthcare sector. The new H-1B fee only applies to prospective beneficiaries and any current H-1B holders are exempt from the fee.

While the government claimed the H-1B fee mostly targets the tech industry, healthcare workers make up a sizeable portion of H-1B beneficiaries. Nearly seventeen-thousand, or 4.2%, of available H-1B visas went to healthcare workers in 2024. However, foreign-trained healthcare professionals made up nearly a quarter of all workers in the same year.

The new H-1B fee poses a massive roadblock to one of the most popular methods of entry into the U.S. for healthcare professionals. The fee disproportionately affects areas under-served by healthcare professionals. In these areas, foreign-trained individuals make up to two thirds of all available medical professionals.

Additionally, the government proposed rules scrapping open-ended admissions for J, F, and I visa holders with fixed stays. This means J-1 visa holders can only stay for four years rather than the duration of the program. Roughly 14,600 J-1 holders graduated on the medical track last year.

Finally, the steep prices of the new H-1B fee discourages foreign medical professionals from studying and working in the U.S. altogether. With no possible method of entry, trained medical professionals could look to other countries for employment opportunities. Such developments undermine the U.S.’s innovative abilities in medicine compared to other countries.

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