Hundreds of employees at dozens of fashion and beauty companies would be affected by the Trump administration’s new policy charging employers $100,000 for H-1B work visa applications, a BoF analysis of government data shows.
The fee, announced by President Donald Trump last month, applies to a type of visa used to bring highly skilled workers into the country that employers say they would struggle to recruit at home. It’s most commonly seen in the tech and finance sectors, with Google, Amazon, J.P. Morgan and Deloitte making thousands of H-1B applications every year. The visas are limited to 85,000 annually and are awarded by a lottery system.
But fashion and beauty make regular use of them as well.
The Business of Fashion identified 20 companies in both industries that have at least 15 employees working on an active H-1B visa as of June 30. Nike had the most, by far, with over 260 employees in total, putting it on par with tech-focused companies like eBay and electric vehicle manufacturer Lucid Motors. Others on the list include the brands Gap Inc., American Eagle Outfitters and Levi Strauss, department store operators Nordstrom, Macy’s and Kohl’s, beauty giant The Estée Lauder Companies and the parent of the makeup brand Il Makiage.
Employees working under H-1B visas at these companies mostly fall into a handful of tech and data roles, including data scientists and engineers, not unlike at Apple or Amazon. The fashion industry has become increasingly high-tech as companies rely more heavily on customer data and analytics to market and learn how to integrate artificial intelligence.
There are exceptions, however.
While the vast majority of Gap’s H-1B applicants are software or data engineers, the company also used the visa for a design director, associate designer, communications director, directors of production and talent management, a social media manager and more.
Many of these jobs are likely safe even with the new fee.
“Take Nike. If they had 17 new approvals last year, that’s $1.7 million,” said Ben Johnston, the chief operating officer of Kapitus Global. “That’s not even a rounding error.”
Of 344 applications made by Nike between July 16, 2024 and June 19, 2025, 239 were for engineering roles, according to Department of Labor data compiled by H1binfo. But the roles included under Nike’s H-1B visa umbrella extend beyond tech, including 15 designer roles. The highest-paying role in that period was the vice president of global brand marketing for Nike’s women’s division, at $425,000.
For some roles, it will be difficult to find domestic talent. For other jobs, companies may opt to hire locally or to outsource these tasks to other countries. There are potential alternatives for prospective international employees, including applying for O-1 visas, which are specifically for applicants with “extraordinary abilities” in sciences, arts, education, business or athletics, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services. This is the visa many in the fashion industry typically opt for. However, this is a higher bar to clear because an applicant must extensively prove their mettle in their respective field. With an H-1B visa, the primary qualification is a bachelor’s degree or higher.
At smaller companies, the choice is particularly tough.
“A lot of times these fashion companies … don’t have the funds to pay that $100,000 fee overnight,” said Shivani Honwad, an immigration lawyer of counsel to Covey Law. Honwad works specifically with H-1B work visa applicants in preparing them for the process. “If you have a team of 10 people and you’re losing one to two people that have been integral to your company, this company is turned upside down.”
The Impact on People
The labor market is already seeing the impact from this decision, Honwad said. She has clients who had companies pull job offers “because the $100,000 fee scared them,” she said. Now, her clients are going back to the drawing board and seeking guidance following the market’s adjustment.
There is still the potential for things to change. A group that includes unions, health care providers and religious organisations has sued to stop the $100,000 fee from taking effect, arguing it is unconstitutional.
Honwad called the language of Trump’s executive order “vague” and said that lawyers are searching for potential workarounds for their clients as they face uncertainty in the marketplace and companies back away from H-1B applicants. The O-1 visa, with its talent requirement, isn’t the only alternative. There’s also the L-1 visa for potential employees who may have worked for a US affiliate of a company while abroad.
In the end, though, the fee, and what it says about hardening anti-immigration attitudes in the US, are making it harder for such workers to thrive once they’re here, Honwad said.
“People that are on these visas are very accomplished. They have higher education. They have a special skill set and bring something to our communities and companies in the US that others may not,” she said. “ These policies are impacting them. People like this are living in fear. Even if this policy isn’t technically kicking them out tomorrow, it’s putting them in a place where you’re curtailing the good they can do.”
