As thousands of internationally trained healthcare workers are stuck in visa limbo, a new $100,000 fee for H-1B visa petitions could further destabilize the workforce, the American Hospital Association said in an article on its website.
In September, President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring employers to pay a $100,000 petition fee for H-1B visa applications. The fee previously was approximately $3,500. The H-1B visa program is dedicated to specialty occupations such as healthcare and technology.
The AHA has advocated for months alongside other national healthcare organizations for the federal government to grant exemptions to the $100,000 fee. During this advocacy push, more than 10,000 physician H-1B visa holders, as well as thousands of nurses, lab technicians and other healthcare workers, have been unable to work due to travel bans and visa pauses initiated in 2025.
Health systems and hospitals have decried these federal policies and orders, claiming they will constrain the U.S. healthcare workforce, which relies on immigrants to meet patient demand.
Efforts have been undertaken to counteract or mitigate the changes, including a lawsuit filed by 20 states seeking to block the $100,000 fee and a bill seeking to exclude physicians and other healthcare workers from the fee.
In November, the AHA surveyed its members about the new application fee to understand its potential scope. More than 1,000 health systems and hospitals were represented in the survey.
Here are five key takeaways from an AHA report:
1. More than 70% of survey respondents said they expect the increased H-1B application fee will directly affect patient care.
2. Sixty-four percent of hospitals that utilized — or planned to utilize — the H-1B visa program said they will pause, defer or limit recruitment due to the $100,000 petition fee.
3. Clinical roles account for 57% of positions that would have been filled by H-1B visa holders.
4. Less than 5% of current H-1B visa holders are health professionals. U.S. counties that are rural, have high poverty levels and/or have significant labor shortages have the highest number of H-1B-sponsored healthcare workers.
5. “In fiscal year 2024, H-1B-sponsored physicians made up just 1% of all practicing physicians — but even with these 11,080 professionals, the U.S. still experienced a shortage of 64,000 physicians by the end of the year,” the report said.
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