Trump slaps $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applicants

WASHINGTON, Sept 19: In a move that has shaken the tech industry root and branch, President Donald Trump on Friday signed a proclamation slapping a $100,000 annual fee on every applicant for H-1B visa, mandating payment by the hiring companies in advance. The restriction will apply to only those who enter the United States after the effective date, that is September 21. The validity of the order is for one year unless extended.

Previously, H-1B applicants paid a modest $215 registration fee and $780 petition fee. It is not mentioned in the proclamation if the new fee will include the existing registration and petition fee.

Tech firms like Amazon, Microsoft, Google and IBM, major users of the H-1B program, are expected to be heavily impacted. The annual cap remains at 85,000 visas. Immigration advocates warn of legal challenges.

Trump accuses tech firms of manipulating the H-1B visa system by overloading the process and other fraudulent means. But they are American companies. The Indian workers have nothing to do with that. Going by the tone, Indians are painted as the culprits in the imagined abuse of the system by American companies.

The Trump administration says the move is also part of a broader immigration crackdown aimed at ensuring only “very highly skilled” workers enter the US under this program.

The H-1B non-immigrant visa program was created to bring temporary workers into the United States to perform highly-skilled jobs for which there are not enough American candidates. However, this program has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled foreign workers, according to the proclamation.

Now, with the proclamation, companies who apply to bring in workers from other countries on this visa will have to fulfil the condition of an annual payment $100,000 per visa in advance.

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick claimed that "all big companies" are on board with the new plan.

The H-1B visa program has become detrimental to American workers’ wages and labour opportunities, according to the order.

"The abuse of the H-1B program is also a national security threat. Domestic law enforcement agencies have identified and investigated H-1B-reliant outsourcing companies for engaging in visa fraud, conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and other illicit activities to encourage foreign workers to come to the United States," it said.

The program reportedly was discouraging Americans from pursuing careers in science and technology.

The order seeks to not entirely block the program but to address its abuse while still permitting companies to hire the best of the best temporary foreign workers.

Following the signing of the proclamation, Secretary of Labour Lori Chavez-DeRemer launched Project Firewall, an H-1B enforcement initiative. She said the "Trump administration is standing by the commitment to end practices which leave Americans "in the dust...By rooting out fraud and abuse, the Department of Labour and our Federal partners will ensure that highly skilled jobs go to Americans first.”

The fee hike is part of a broader immigration reform package aimed at funding detention centres, border wall expansion and hiring immigration agents.

With 13,396 H-1B visas sponsored in total by Indian companies, the new order would increase the H-1B visa fees from about $13.4 million to $1.34 billion, or about 10% of the combined net profits of TCS, Infosys, HCLTech, Cognizant and LTIMindtree in FY25, according to Mint.

US tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Apple and Meta also employ large numbers of H-1B professionals, largely from India.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has asked its employees on H-1B and H-4 visas to return to the US immediately before the Trump administration’s September 21 deadline.