US signals H-1B overhaul days after Trump's fee hike, calls influx of cheap tech consultants with families ‘just wrong’

Just as India was grappling with the H-1B visa fee hike, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has now indicated that the H-1B visa process will undergo an overhaul before February 2026, when the newly announced fee of USD 100,000 (over ₹88 lakh) takes effect. Declaring that “a significant number of changes” will be implemented, Lutnik also criticised the notion of “inexpensive” tech consultants entering the United States with their families, calling it “just wrong”.

He said that the incoming reforms in the H-1B visa system would tighten it well ahead of the steep fee hike.

Earlier this month, the Donald Trump administration announced a hike in the H-1B visa fee for new workers being brought into the country – an order that will impact Indian professionals looking to work in the US on temporary visas.

‘Real thoughtful change’

In a recent interview, Lutnick had mentioned that the process would take effect in February 2026 and would involve a significant number of changes. “This procedure and process goes into effect in February of 2026, so my guess is going to be, there are going to be a significant number of changes between now and 2026,” the US Commerce Secretary said.

Lutnick also said that a “thoughtful” change will be visible going forward.

“There's going to be a variety of changes; they're talking about changes - how to get the lottery, should it still be a lottery? But that will all be resolved by February,” he said, adding, “but as of right now”, there's going to be a one-time fee of USD 100,000 to get in.

He pointed out that the H-1B visa process functions like a lottery, and recalled a recent discussion with the chiefs of two of the world’s largest tech firms, who described the idea of deciding skilled workers’ entry into the US through a lottery as “bizarre”.

Lutnick questioned why a nation should bring in skilled workers through a lottery. “That just doesn't make any sense.”

He said there is consensus that the H-1B process, which was set up in 1990 and “sort of butchered along the way”, needs to change.

On ‘inexpensive’ tech consultants

The US Commerce Secretary said the visas are 7-10 times “oversubscribed”, and 74 per cent of them are issued for tech consulting.

“H1B visas are for tech consultants? Like, somehow, that's like important that tech consultants are onshore versus offshore. They're all in other countries anyway,” he said.

He added that the H-1B lottery needs to be “fixed" and the US should only give "highly-skilled jobs" to the "most highly-skilled people".

He said the engineers that the companies hire in the US should be highly paid ones.

“The idea of having tech consultants and trainees who are inexpensive should be eliminated. I have a strong opinion that way. I think the President's right with me on those same topics. I am completely on the view that this idea that inexpensive tech consultants should be coming into this country and bringing their families, I find it just wrong, and so it sits wrong with me,” Lutnick noted.

(With PTI inputs)