Amr Awadallah, founder of AI startup Vectara, had two reactions when he heard about changes to the H-1B visa program that raise the application fee for each visa to $100,000 .

He was not surprised. But he was dismayed.

“I can’t afford to pay $100,000,” Awadallah told TechCrunch. He’s hired one employee on an H-1B, and while the new fee only applies to new applications, he believes it’s too high for many startups and will price them out of hiring internationally.

The H-1B visa was created to allow companies to hire skilled talent from a worldwide market for such occupations as IT and engineering. On Friday, Trump announced that the fee hike, typically paid by the employer, would increase from $2,000-$5,000 to $100,000 per application, a change that will especially be felt with the ne

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