Trump to impose $100,000 annual fee for H-1B visas

President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order introducing a $100,000 annual fee for H-1B visas to reduce “overuse of the program”.

“We need great workers, and this pretty much ensures that that’s what’s going to happen,” Trump said while signing the order at the Oval Office.

White House officials said the measure was designed to encourage companies to prioritise hiring American workers while at the same time being allowed to hire highly skilled foreign workers in specialised fields.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said, “So no longer will you put trainees on an H-1B visa. That it’s just not economic anymore. If you’re going to train people, you’re going to train Americans… 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.”

Since taking office in January, Trump has launched a sweeping immigration crackdown, including moves to limit some forms of legal immigration. The step to reshape the H-1B visa program represents his administration's most high-profile effort yet to rework temporary employment visas.

How will it affect the industry?

"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," eMarketer analyst Jeremy Goldman told the Reuters.

Meanwhile, Deedy Das, partner at venture capital firm Menlo Ventures, wrote on X that the new fee "creates a disincentive to attract the world's smartest talent to the US. If the US ceases to attract the best talent, it drastically reduces its ability to innovate and grow the economy.”

In the first half of 2025, Amazon.com and its cloud-computing unit AWS received approval for more than 12,000 H-1B visas, while Microsoft and Meta Platforms had over 5,000 H-1B visa approvals each.

India accounts for most H-1B visas

The H-1B program offers 65,000 visas a year to employers bringing in temporary foreign workers in specialised fields, and another 20,000 visas for workers with advanced degrees. Under the current system, entering the lottery for the visa requires a small fee and, if approved, subsequent fees could amount to several thousand dollars.

India was the largest beneficiary of H-1B visas last year, accounting for 71% of approved beneficiaries, while China was a distant second at 11.7%, according to government data.

(With inputs from AP and Reuters)