President Donald Trump’s new plan to make employers pay $100,000 for temporary work visas given to highly skilled foreign professionals is giving Maine employers with existing financial headaches about how the new fee could affect hiring here.

Trump issued a proclamation last Friday on the new $100,000 fee for H-1B visas that are capped at 85,000 a year and cost little. Trump claimed the program has been “exploited” to replace workers with lower-paid labor, but tech companies, business groups and lawyers responded with confusion and worry over the effect on hiring in critical positions.

Some of the nation’s biggest tech companies, including Amazon and Apple, are among the top users of the program. In a symptom of Maine’s small but expanding tech workforce, a major hospital and t

See Full Page