H-1B Visa: Immigration restriction? Why Trump imposed $100,000 fee for highly skilled foreign workers?
President Trump signed a proclamation imposing a $100,000 annual visa fee for skilled foreign workers and introduced a $1 million gold card visa for wealthy individuals. The changes aim to benefit the U.S. economy and are expected to face legal challenges.
US President Donald Trump on Friday signed a proclamation imposing a $100,000 annual visa fee for H-1B visas for highly-skilled foreign workers and introduced a $1 million “gold card” visa, offering wealthy individuals a pathway to US citizenship.
Why did Trump impose $100,000 annual visa fee?
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick lauded the Trump administration's recent changes to visa programs, asserting that the new policies would ensure foreign workers provide a “significant benefit” to the U.S.
He noted that the reforms would end practices where foreign workers “take jobs from hard-working Americans” and exploit the economy without making meaningful contributions.
Lutnick said the change will likely result in far fewer H-1B visas than the 85,000 annual cap allows because “it’s just not economic anymore.”
“If you’re going to train people, you’re going to train Americans,” Lutnick said on a conference call with reporters. "If you have a very sophisticated engineer and you want to bring them in ... then you can pay $100,000 a year for your H-1B visa.”
What will be the impact?
Although Trump has insisted that the tech industry would support the changes, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick claiming “all big companies” are in favour, if the measures withstand legal scrutiny, they will result in “dramatic fee increases”.
The cost for skilled worker visas would surge from $215, while investor visa fees could rise from $10,000-$20,000 annually. H-1B visas, which are used for high-skilled roles in industries like tech, are a key target. Critics argue the program enables foreign workers willing to accept lower wages—sometimes as low as $60,000—competing with U.S. tech workers, who typically earn $100,000 or more.
However, these actions are likely to face significant legal challenges, with critics accusing Trump of bypassing Congress.
Fan service for ‘immigration restrictionists’? Critics say…
Critics of H-1B visas, who argue they replace American workers, applauded Trump's move, with the advocacy group U.S. Tech Workers calling it "the next best thing" to completely abolishing the visas.
However, Doug Rand, a former senior official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under the Biden administration, described the proposed fee increase as “ludicrously lawless,” as reported by AP.
Also Read: Microsoft asks H1-B, H4 visa holders to return to US by tomorrow after Trump H-1B visa order
“This isn’t real policy — it’s fan service for immigration restrictionists,” Rand said. “Trump gets his headlines, and inflicts a jolt of panic, and doesn’t care whether this survives first contact with the courts.”
Lutnick said the H-1B fees and gold card could be introduced by the president, but the platinum card needs congressional approval.
Why a strike on the H-1B visa?
Historically, H-1B visas have been distributed through a lottery system, with Amazon leading the way this year, receiving over 10,000 visas, followed by companies like Tata Consultancy, Microsoft, Apple, and Google. California has the highest concentration of H-1B workers.
Critics argue that H-1B visas often go to fill entry-level positions rather than specialised, senior roles with unique skill requirements. While the program is designed to avoid undercutting U.S. wages or displacing American workers, critics contend that companies can classify jobs at lower skill levels to pay foreign workers less, even when those workers have more experience.
As a result, many U.S. companies outsource help desks, programming, and other basic tasks to consulting firms like Wipro, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Tata, IBM, and Cognizant.
These firms hire foreign workers, mostly from India, and subcontract them to U.S. employers seeking to cut costs.
First lady Melania Trump, the former Melania Knauss, was granted an H-1B work visa in October 1996 to work as a model. She was born in Slovenia.
In 2024, lottery bids for the visas plunged nearly 40%, which authorities said was due to success against people who were “gaming the system” by submitting multiple, sometimes dubious, applications to unfairly increase chances of being selected.
Critics welcomed the change but said more needs to be done. The AFL-CIO wrote last year that while changes to the lottery “included some steps in the right direction,” it fell short of needed reforms. The labor group wants visas awarded to companies that pay the highest wages instead of by random lottery, a change that Trump sought during his first term in the White House.
(With inputs from Associated Press)