Trump suggests charging US H-1B visas $100,000 per year.
The Trump administration may inflict a serious blow to the technology industry, which mainly depends on talented workers from China and India, when it announced on Friday that it will require businesses to pay $100,000 annually for H-1B worker visas.
Trump has launched a broad immigration crackdown since taking office in January, which includes actions to restrict certain types of lawful immigration. The move to restructure the H-1B visa program is the most prominent attempt to reform temporary employment visas that his administration has made to yet.
“One of the new graduates from one of the top colleges in our country will be the person you train if you are going to train anyone. Educate Americans. “Stop importing workers to replace us,” stated US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Since the tech sector gave millions of dollars to Trump’s presidential campaign, his vow to crack down on H-1B visas has become a major issue of contention.
Many US IT workers are among the program’s detractors, who claim that it enables companies to reduce salaries and exclude Americans who could perform the tasks. Proponents, like as Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and a former Trump buddy, claim it attracts highly qualified workers who are necessary to close talent gaps and maintain businesses’ competitiveness. Musk, a South African-born naturalized U.S. citizen, has previously held an H-1B visa.
According to the executive order Trump signed on Friday, some firms have taken advantage of the program to suppress wages, which has disadvantaged American workers.
Even if overall STEM employment expanded by just 44.5% between 2000 and 2019, the number of international STEM workers in the US more than doubled to over 2.5 million, according to the report.
This could discourage talented people from throughout the world.
The addition of extra fees “creates disincentive to attract the world’s smartest talent to the US,” Menlo Ventures partner Deedy Das stated on X. “If the US ceases to attract the best talent, it drastically reduces its ability to innovate and grow the economy.”
organizations may incur millions of dollars in additional expenses as a result of the transition, which could be especially detrimental to start-ups and smaller software organizations.
The administration of the fee was not immediately clear to Reuters. According to Lutnick, the cost of the visa would be $100,000 annually for each of the three years it would be in effect, but the specifics were “still being considered.”
According to some observers, the price would compel businesses to relocate some valuable work abroad, hurting America’s standing in the fierce competition with China for artificial intelligence.
“In the short term, Washington may collect a windfall; in the long term, the US risks taxing away its innovation edge, trading dynamism for short-sighted protectionism,” Jeremy Goldman, an analyst at eMarketer, said.
The majority of H-1B visas come from India.
According to federal data, India accounted for 71% of all H-1B visas granted last year, making it the top recipient. China came in second at 11.7%.
Microsoft and Meta Platforms each had over 5,000 H-1B visa approvals in the first half of 2025, while Amazon.com and its cloud computing division, AWS, got over 12,000 H-1B visa approvals.
“All the big companies are on board” with $100,000 annually for H-1B visas, Lutnick stated on Friday.
His words were, “We’ve spoken to them,”
Requests for comment were not quickly answered or were denied by a number of major US tech, financial, and consultancy firms. Requests for comment were also not immediately answered by the Chinese Consulate General in New York or the Indian embassy in Washington.
Cognizant Technology Solutions, an IT services provider that heavily depends on H-1B visa applicants, had an almost 5% decline in share price. Shares of Indian tech companies Infosys and Wipro that are listed in the United States ended the day 2% to 5% lower.
Crackdown on immigration
The American Immigration Council’s policy director, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, questioned whether the increased fees were lawful. “Congress has only authorized the government to set fees to recover the cost of adjudicating an application,” he stated on Bluesky.
An additional 20,000 visas are available for workers with advanced degrees under the H-1B program, which grants 65,000 visas per year to firms hiring temporary foreign workers in specialized sectors.
A minor charge is required to enter the visa lottery under the existing system, and additional fees could reach several thousand dollars if the application is accepted.
Employers are responsible for paying almost all visa fees. The authorized duration of H-1B visas is three to six years.
On Friday, Trump also issued an executive order to establish a “gold card” for anyone who can afford to spend $1 million to become permanent residents of the United States.
US Immigration Crackdown on H-1B visa fees