The recent imposition of a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications threatens to deter international medical graduates from coming to the United States for their training and remaining as a vital part of our nation’s healthcare workforce, exacerbating a provider shortage that the rheumatology community is already experiencing.

In 2018, more than 2.6 million immigrants, including 314,000 refugees, were employed as healthcare workers, with 1.5 million of them working as doctors, registered nurses, and pharmacists. While immigrants represent 17 percent of the overall U.S. civilian workforce, they account for 28 percent of physicians. Furthermore, almost 23,000 H-1B physicians worked in underserved communities between 2021 and 2024, underscoring their importance in the American health care system.

The ACR urges Congress to implement a healthcare worker exemption to this recently imposed fee. Moreover, Congress must continue to pursue policies that reduce barriers to qualified international medical graduates and foreign nationals from joining the American medical workforce and serving the U.S. population.

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