As the Trump administration pushes for reforms to the H-1B visa programme, with an aim to benefit American-born workers, Skillstorm CEO Justin Vianello have voiced strong support, citing potential benefits for the US workforce and job market.
In an interview with Fox News, Vianello described one of the “biggest challenges” with the current H-1B system as its impact on college hiring, particularly for graduates in fields such as computer science and computer engineering. He added that there was a “concerning” level of unemployment among college graduates in the IT sector of the country.
US President Donald Trump unveiled his new H-1B visa policy in September. He introduced a $100,000 one-time fee for fresh visa petitions filed on or after 21 September, a major jump from the prior application fee of about $1,000.
‘Three-headed monster’ competing with US grads
Vianello argued that the recent US college graduates in the IT sector face a severely competitive job market, which he referred to as the “three-headed monster.”
He explained that employers often pay “significantly less” to H-1B visa holders than their counterparts doing equivalent IT roles, making them more appealing to those looking to pay less.
In addition to competing with H-1B visa holders, college graduates also face competition from Optional Practical Training (OPT) visa holders, an extension of the F-1 visa for STEM graduates. Vianello pointed out that since OPT participants don’t pay Social Security or Medicare taxes, they are automatically 15% cheaper.
He told Fox News that the third challenge that US graduates have faced so far is that an employer can simply choose to offshore work instead of hiring within the country.
Vianello said that while the original intent of the H-1B visa was to bring in and retain skilled people, including those studying in universities, the outcome for college grads competing for those roles has been “really bad.”
“The reason I’m in America, along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong, is because of H1B,” he said, adding that was the intended benefit of the visa programme.
Proposed changes and their impact
The Trump administration’s new H-1B visa rule aims to curb the perceived misuse of the programme and nudges employers to offer higher salaries or reserve H-1B petitions for jobs that require advanced skills.
Vianello told Fox News Digital, “Certainly I think that the $100,000 fee on any new applications is gonna go a long way toward changing behaviour, but that’s focused on H-1B.”
The expert, who himself came to the US on a visa, told Fox News Digital that he is not opposed to worker visa programs in general, provided they are used to attract top-tier workers and do not leave the American workers behind.
“I fully support using visas to attract top-tier technologists to the US. I came here on a Speciality Occupation Visa myself, which required my employer to invest significantly to bring me over. What I oppose is the misuse of programs like H-1B and OPT as tools for labour arbitrage, which undercuts entry-level opportunities for US tech graduates and distorts the talent market,” he said during the interview.
