How Trump’s $100k H‑1B Fee Opens the Door to Offshore Services

When the U.S. President announced a new $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications, the headline sounded bold: protect American jobs, discourage outsourcing, keep talent local.

But here’s the twist: instead of keeping jobs in the U.S., this policy is making companies hit pause, reroute, and rethink where work gets done. In fact, it’s doing the exact opposite of what was intended.  

And I’ll tell you why →

H1-B Policy in Plain Terms

For decades, the H-1B visa has been a bridge between U.S. companies and global talent especially in technology, AI development, engineering, and finance.Startups and mid-sized businesses leaned on it to fill roles they simply couldn’t source fast enough at home.

Now, with a $100,000 application fee per worker, the math just doesn’t work. 

Big corporations might absorb it, but startups? Forget it. For them, this fee is a deal-breaker.

• Startups & growth companies are calling the fee “unworkable.”

• Hiring plans are on hold; recruitment budgets are being re-written.

• Instead of paying six figures for a visa before even hiring, many are asking: why not move the role overseas entirely?

  
  

The irony? A policy meant to “protect jobs” is accelerating the shift of those very jobs abroad.

H-1B VISA Fee Impact on Tech and AI

The technology and AI sectors are the hardest hit because they depend heavily on highly specialized international talent. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data, nearly 70% of H-1B visas historically go to computer-related occupations, from machine learning engineers to cybersecurity analysts.

AI startups in particular face acute pressure. Training large language models, building autonomous systems, and scaling cloud infrastructure require rare expertise.

Losing access to global specialists drives up costs and slows innovation exactly when countries like Canada, the U.K., and Singapore are investing aggressively in AI talent and incentives.

Tech founders now find it cheaper and faster to set up offshore development hubs in Toronto, Vancouver, or Montreal, where the Canadian government offers research tax credits and streamlined work permits for AI researchers.

Canada’s Offshore Opportunity

For years, big tech and finance firms have run remote teams. The new H‑1B fee merely accelerates a trend that was already under way: companies can access global talent without navigating U.S. visa hurdles.

Immigration experts at Moving2Canada note that the $100 k fee may push U.S. employers to relocate roles to Canada or hire Canadian professionals

Why Canada?

• Proximity & Time Zones: Same workday overlap, minimal travel headaches.

• Deep Talent Pool: Engineers, accountants, analysts—ready and available.

• Immigration-Friendly: Streamlined work permits than the H-1B maze.

• Cost Arbitrage :  Lower salaries than comparable U.S. roles and exchange rate differential. 

  
  

For U.S. founders, the calculation is simple: why fight U.S. bureaucracy when top-tier Canadian talent is available without the six-figure visa headaches ?

Why Startups and SMEs Should Care

Large corporations can swallow $100 k fees or hire full-time lobby teams.

Startups and small businesses can’t. 

They depend on niche experts, and a new visa fee forces them into a tough choice: pay a staggering upfront cost or lose access to critical skills.

For entrepreneurs, this is a wake-up call to rethink talent strategy. Instead of hinging growth on U.S. visas, start building distributed teams from day one. You may discover that your accountant or controller is even more responsive and less tied up in U.S. immigration backlogs—when they work remotely.

And this shift isn’t just about coders and data scientists. It’s opening eyes to offshore and near-shore services in finance and accounting.

At SolvedAF, we see this everyday. U.S. businesses are no longer treating offshore accounting as a last-resort option. Instead, they’re embracing it as a core growth strategy (More on how at accounting.solvedaf.com).

My Take

This $100,000 visa fee is more than a policy tweak, it’s a wake-up call. Companies can no longer depend on predictable immigration frameworks. 

The smart ones are already diversifying their workforce strategy, tapping Canadian talent, and building distributed offshore teams.

If you’re a U.S. founder or CFO, the question isn’t “should you rethink hiring strategy”,it’s how fast can you?