“We have limited resources”: Trump’s $100,000 H-1B fee complicates Yale’s hiring of international scholars

For years, the H-1B visa functioned as a routine administrative cost for American universities hiring international faculty and researchers. At Yale University, departments regularly sponsored tenure track faculty, research scientists and postdoctoral associates under a system that typically cost less than $4,000 per petition. That calculation changed this fall.In September, US President Donald Trump issued a proclamation imposing a new $100,000 fee on every initial H-1B visa application filed on or after September 21. The White House said the measure was intended to curb what it described as employer abuses that had created “a disadvantageous labor market for American citizens.”At Yale, the fee arrived at a moment of financial strain. According to Yale Daily News, the University is already preparing for the effects of a federal endowment tax increase signed into law by Trump last year and scheduled to take effect this year. The developments have raised questions about how departments will manage the rising cost of hiring from abroad.“We have limited resources,” Steven Wilkinson, the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, wrote in an email to Yale Daily News. He added that the University would continue “to support our departments in continuing to hire the best faculty from around the world.”“These fees will be a very significant challenge, however, for units bringing scholars in for shorter appointments,” Wilkinson wrote.

Departments absorb the cost

Under Yale’s current system, individual departments are responsible for covering visa expenses. Ozan Say, the director of Yale’s Office of International Students and Scholars, confirmed to Yale Daily News that each department pays the new fee when sponsoring an H-1B applicant.That structure has placed the burden squarely on academic units with limited discretionary funds.“Our department is not in the position to finance such applications,” Tamas Horvath, chair of the Yale School of Medicine’s comparative medicine program, wrote in an email to Yale Daily News.David Vasseur, chair of Yale’s ecology and evolutionary biology department, also expressed concern. “I am concerned about the additional cost this will add to recruiting international scholars in these already fiscally challenging times,” he wrote to Yale Daily News, saying that his department has not yet directly felt the effects of the new fee.Say told the News that sponsorship requests “are always initiated by hiring units,” regardless of visa type, reinforcing that the decision to proceed rests with departments weighing academic priorities against financial constraints.

Administrative uncertainty and legal challenges

University administrators say they are still assessing how the policy will affect hiring decisions. When asked whether Yale plans to adjust departmental budgeting in response to the new fee, University Provost Scott Strobel said the impact is under review.“Litigation is ongoing, and we are keeping track of developments,” Strobel wrote in a statement provided to News by a spokesperson.Multiple states, including California and Washington, have filed lawsuits challenging the legality of the $100,000 fee. Yale has also taken a public stance in related immigration cases. Strobel pointed to the University’s decision this month to join an amicus brief supporting Harvard University’s lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security over restrictions on hosting international students.Despite the uncertainty, Strobel said Yale would continue to support its international community.

Hiring decisions under pressure

At an October 1 town hall webinar, Say advised departments to “consider timing and alternatives when making hiring decisions” for international scholars and to remain in close contact with his office, according to Yale Daily News coverage of the event.“How, when, and where Yale uses H-1B visas is determined by research and teaching priorities,” Say wrote in an email to the News this week.Wilkinson said the Faculty of Arts and Sciences is still recruiting for the upcoming academic year and is waiting to evaluate the full effect of the new fee. “In the FAS, we remain committed to recruiting the best scholars from around the world, and to supporting the international faculty who are currently part of our community,” he wrote.The stakes are especially high for postdoctoral researchers. During the October webinar, Say said that more than 90% of Yale scholars on H-1B visas are postdoctoral associates.“These are scholars and faculty who are critical to the university’s mission of research and teaching,” Say said, according to Yale Daily News. “So the fact that we might be limited in our ability to sponsor for H-1B for some of these researchers and faculty has a very significant impact on the University.”

Additional barriers beyond cost

The higher fee is not the only recent change affecting H-1B applicants. Last month, the US Department of State announced that beginning December 15, it would expand screening of H-1B and H-4 applicants’ online presence, including social media accounts.Following the announcement, Yale’s Office of International Students and Scholars advised applicants to make their social media profiles public and to “evaluate your risk regarding your social media presence and digital footprint.”The policy mirrors earlier measures introduced in June that extended social media vetting to F, M and J visas, which include international undergraduates and exchange students.The immediate effects of this may be uneven, absorbed slowly by some departments and deferred by others. But over time, the pressure points are likely to surface in the form of delayed hires and opportunities that never quite materialise.