Rising H-1B visa fees threaten foreign doctors in US, Harvard scholar says; immigrant physicians vital to American healthcare

Foreign-trained physicians, who make up nearly one quarter of the United States’ medical workforce, could be forced to leave underserved communities due to skyrocketing H-1B visa fees, a historian of science has warned. Before, the hospitals had to pay approximately $5,000 to sponsor a physician’s visa to work in the United States. Now, they’d have to pay $100,000 per physician. That is a massive increase, according to Eram Alam, an associate professor and author of The Care of Foreigners: How Immigrant Physicians Changed US Healthcare. She warned that many hospitals, particularly in rural areas, cannot absorb these additional costs, which could force foreign doctors to leave. The American Medical Association has petitioned the administration to exempt physicians from the higher fees,