Elon Musk gives big ‘suggestion’ on H-1B visa controversy, on whom will Tesla CEO’s opinion weigh?

US H-1B visa controversy: Amidst the intensifying debate on the pros and cons of H-1B visa in America, Tesla owner Elon Musk has said that there are flaws in this visa system, but they can be easily removed. Earlier, Musk had said that he/she can go to ‘war level’ in defense of this visa system.
Donald Trump, who is going to become the President of America on January 20, had raised questions on the H-1B visa system in his/her last term and had also imposed restrictions on it. This time he/she has selected many Indians one after the other for important responsibilities in the new administration. In this, Shriram Krishnan was given the responsibility of leading the AI ​​policy. After this, Trump’s staunchest supporters targeted migrants and then H-1B visas.

In this controversy, Musk supported H-1B visa. But now Musk has said that the system is not working properly. User @RobertMSterling on In response to this, Musk wrote, ‘This can be easily fixed. The minimum salary will have to be increased significantly and the annual cost of maintaining H-1B will have to be incurred. This will make it very expensive to hire from abroad instead of from within the country. My clear opinion is that this program is no longer good and it needs major reforms.

What is the condition of salary and fees?

According to data from US Citizenship and Immigration Services, in the year 2023, the average annual salary of H-1B visa holders in computer-related work was $ 1 lakh 32 thousand. When companies apply for a new employee or for a visa extension, they have to pay a government fee of approximately $35,000. If the employee needs to be sponsored for permanent residence, the total charge can exceed $50,000.

Whose difficulty will increase?

In terms of new applications in the financial year 2024, the maximum number of 3871 visas were approved for Amazon. 2387 applications of Cognizant, 2507 of Infosys, 1452 of TCS, 1348 of IBM, 1264 of Microsoft, 1058 of Google and 920 of Meta Platforms were approved. Tesla’s 742 H-1B visas were approved. The number more than doubled for Tesla from 328 in 2023 and it became the 16th company in terms of new applications. Earlier it was not even in the top 25.

The need for skilled people is increasing for all these companies. If there are capable people in America, then they should recruit them, but the problem is that compared to the people of India and China, American people are far behind in science and mathematics. In the latest controversy, Vivek Ramaswamy also mentioned this, whom Trump has made the head of the department of reducing government expenditure. 71% of the students studying computer and information science in America are foreigners. 73% of Electrical and Computer Engineering students are foreigners.

What do experts say?

Well-known career counselor Mohan Tiwari says that if the minimum salary of H-1B visa holders is increased and the annual cost of visa maintenance is imposed, then hiring from abroad will become expensive for the companies, but the question is whether companies like Tesla will Will so many specialized people be found in America? Due to the huge skill gap, hiring will have to be done from abroad. The Trump administration may increase costs to pacify supporters, but the increase will not be much. Will have to keep an eye, but all this is not going to happen immediately.