Trump’s increased fee for H-1B visas hits Minnesota schools, retail and health care

Fridley Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Lewis abruptly paused the hiring of a dozen international employees last month when President Donald Trump announced a new fee for their work visas, the latest turn of events in his mass overhaul of immigration policies.

Fridley Public Schools has been hiring more international teachers each year since 2023, especially in the special education department, and is just one of many employers in Minnesota that rely on foreign workers.

The president issued an executive order in mid-September requiring employers to pay $100,000 for each new international employee who needs a H-1B visa to live and work in the United States. The visa used to cost from $2,000 to $5,000 per employee, depending on the employer’s size.

“We can’t afford that,” Lewis told Sahan Journal.

There are still many questions about how the government will spend money from the increased fees, and whether certain industries will be treated differently, said some local immigration attorneys. They also said the fee will put a strain on industries that rely on H-1B workers to fill worker shortages, such as teachers and nurses.

“They [the Trump administration] don’t realize that it’s actually harming a lot of other industries,” said John Medeiros, a Minneapolis-based immigration attorney.

The H-1B program was created by Congress in 1990 to offer a way for employers to temporarily hire immigrants to work in specialty occupations that require at least a bachelor’s degree. H-1B visas expire in three years, and can be renewed for another three years. It’s possible to extend the visa longer than six years, with a few exceptions. Employers apply for the H-1B petition and cover the cost of the visa.

Generally, universities, nonprofits and government research organizations are exempt from the lottery, so they can submit petitions any time. The federal citizenship agency reviews and approves applications based on several factors, including an employee’s level of education and their occupation’s specialty.

The Trump administration said the new fee will prevent misuse of the H-1B visa program and address national security threats. It will apply to new H-1B applicants outside of the U.S. who file petitions for the visa on or after Sept. 21.

“The H-1B nonimmigrant visa program was created to bring temporary workers into the United States to perform additive, high-skilled functions, but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor,” read the executive order.

The new fee does not apply to those already in the U.S. on an H-1B visa who are seeking an extension. It also does not apply to others who are in the country on other immigration visas, such as an international student visa, who want to change them into an H-1B visa, according to the latest update from the Trump administration.

The president’s update said exemptions to the fee will be granted in “extraordinarily rare circumstance,” such as workers in a field of “national interest.”

Some of the largest H-1B employers in Minnesota include Target, BestBuy, the University of Minnesota, Mayo Clinic and U.S. Bank, which received between 128 and 598 H-1B approvals this year, according to data from the federal citizenship agency. School districts are also among the top H-1B employers, including Lakes International Language Academy, Southwest Metro Intermediate District 288 and Fridley Public Schools.

Shannon Peterson, executive director at Lakes International Language Academy, said the new fee caused confusion, prompting parents to ask if some teachers would have to leave school. The public charter school has hired H-1B teachers for several years.

“Not only do these teachers have the skill set, education and experience that we need, they’re also native speakers of the languages that we’re using to teach,” she said. “There’s no way we can pay [the new fee]. In fact, it’s probably almost double the average of what our teachers make.”

Lewis said the number of H-1B workers at Fridley schools has grown to about 70 teachers this year. She submitted only one H-1B petition after requesting an exemption from the new fee.

Some school officials said they hope the government won’t require fees for educators because generally schools are exempt from the lottery system that applies to other employers.

“I just think this is an exercise of nonsense,” she said of the new fee.

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