Trump’s $100K H-1B fee has upended developer hiring. Here’s what it means for recruiters, why relocation won’t save you, and how to hire where developers already are.
Trump’s announcement of a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas has sent shockwaves through the recruiting world. For many companies, especially those who’ve relied on H-1B talent pipelines for years, this feels like the ground shifting under their feet.
I want to offer two things here: clarity on what this change means, and a path forward for anyone who’s suddenly asking, how do we keep hiring great developers in this new reality?
The short version of what’s happening
- The $100,000 surcharge applies to new H-1B petitions for workers outside the U.S.
- Existing H-1B holders and renewals aren’t affected.
- But for new hires, the cost is prohibitive for all but the largest corporations.
For startups, scale-ups, and even mid-sized enterprises, that effectively closes the door on relocation as a primary strategy. The pipeline of “bring them here under H-1B” has been squeezed to almost nothing.
Why this matters more than just fees
The H-1B system was already strained: a lottery with demand far outpacing supply, résumés that never told the whole story, and processes that rewarded memorization over capability.
This new policy doesn’t just add cost - it accelerates the collapse of an outdated model. The global developer talent pool hasn’t shrunk, but the path to access it has fundamentally changed.
What companies should be thinking right now
If you’re responsible for technical hiring, here are the questions I’d be asking my team this week:
- How much of our headcount plan assumed relocation through H-1B?
- Can we access this talent in new ways - distributed, remote, or near-shore?
- Do we have the right tools to find passive developers who aren’t on LinkedIn or job boards?
- Are we building enough trust into our recruiting process to stand out when every candidate has more options than ever?
The companies that adapt fastest won’t be the ones who wait for the policy to change back. They’ll be the ones who diversify strategies now, and stop relying on a system that has been failing candidates and recruiters alike for years.
Where I think the future is headed
Developers don’t live on job boards. They don’t update LinkedIn. They don’t wait for visa lotteries to decide their careers.
They’re out there building, learning, and engaging every day - in communities they trust. That’s where the best signal is. That’s where the trust is. And that’s where recruiting has to move if it’s going to work in 2025 and beyond.
That’s why we built daily.dev Recruiter: to give companies a way to hire where developers already are. To move past cold outreach and résumés and into warm, double opt-in introductions that are based on real behavior and real intent.
We can’t change immigration policy. But we can change how we approach developer hiring. And in this moment, that shift feels more urgent than ever.
An open offer
If you’re a recruiter, TA leader, or founder staring at your headcount plan right now and wondering how you’ll hit it under these new rules - I want to help.
Reach out. Let’s talk about what’s happening in the developer ecosystem, what trust-based recruiting looks like in practice, and how we can unlock access to the passive talent that was never going to show up in the H-1B lottery anyway.
Because while governments can change visa rules overnight, one thing hasn’t changed: developers still want to grow, learn, and do great work. The question is whether we’ll meet them where they are, or keep waiting for a broken system to work again.
