Washington: US President Donald Trump on Saturday directed an annual $100,000 charge to be levied on H-1B skilled worker visas, potentially imposing dramatic consequences in the tech sector where such visas are ubiquitous.
The new directive, likely subject to legal challenge, was announced with the unveiling of a $1 million “gold card” residency program that Trump had teased months ago.
“The main thing is, we’re going to have great people coming in, and they’re going to be paying,” Trump told reporters as he signed the orders in the Oval Office.
What is H-1B skilled worker visa
H-1B visas allow companies to sponsor foreign workers with specialized skills — such as scientists, engineers, and computer programmers — to work in the United States, initially for three years, but extendable to six years.
Indians to be most impacted
85,000 H-1B visas are granted annually by the United States on the lottery basis, and India provides approximately three-quarters of the total beneficiaries.
Indian employees who either move to the United States or travel back and forth between the nations support large technology companies.
Trump targets H-1B professional worker visas with $100,000 charge as Indians probably worst hit
Tech moguls — Trump’s former partner Elon Musk included — cautioned against targeting H-1B visas, arguing that the United States lacks sufficient homegrown talent to fill critical tech industry job openings.
“All the big players are on board,” declared Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who stood with Trump in the Oval Office.
Trump has been targeting the H-1B program since his initial term in office, but confronted judicial challenges to his initial strategy, which focused on the kinds of jobs that are eligible. The new version has emerged as the latest step in the big immigration crackdown of his second term.
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The fee will be mandatory for people wanting to come into the country from Sunday, although the Homeland Security secretary can waive it for people, whole companies, or whole sectors.
The order is due to lapse after a year, but Trump can renew it.
The number of applications for H-1B visas has spiked in recent years, reaching its highest level of approvals in 2022 under Democratic president Joe Biden.
Conversely, the high in rejections was in 2018, in Trump’s initial term in the White House.
The United States approved about 400,000 H-1B visas in 2024, with two-thirds of them being renewals.
Trump also signed an order establishing a new fast-track to US residency for individuals who pay $1 million, or for corporate sponsors to pay $2 million.
“I think it’s going to be really successful,” Trump said.
