Reading the news about a $100K fee on H-1B visas, I kept seeing the same question pop up: why hire someone on an H-1B at all instead of just building an offshore team?

Early in my career, the answer was obvious: H-1B hires let you expand the expertise of your local team and grow culture right where you sit. Outsourcing chips away at that. Building a team in another country means learning a new market, a new culture, and a whole new operating model.

For decades, offices enforced geographic restrictions. If you wanted to compete for the best jobs, you moved to the meccas like San Francisco or New York City. For some roles, that may never change. But when we push back on RTO, we also remove those restrictions. Suddenly, the best person might live anywhere, as long as they can work golden hours or travel when needed.

But here’s the twist: remote work changed everything.

I run my own business now, and while it is nice when people are local, it does not stop me from working with team members in different states or countries. I am usually looking for the best person I can afford for the role. Local is lagniappe (a little something extra), not the requirement.

That is where RTO gets interesting. For some companies and roles, being in-person may feel safer, or may even reduce the competition for jobs. For others, it might limit access to talent in ways that hurt more than it helps.

So maybe the real question is not whether RTO is good or bad, but whether the geographic restrictions it enforces are worth the tradeoff.

Trump imposes $100K fee on H-1B visas in new immigration action | CNN Politics

President Donald Trump signed an executive action on Friday to impose a $100,000 application fee for H-1B visas — in an effort to curb what the administration says is overuse of the program.