Trump signs proclamation imposing annual $100,000 fee on H-1B visas | Donald Trump

Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Friday which would impose annual fees of $ 100,000 on H-1B visa requests, a potentially major blow to the American technological industry, which relies heavily on workers from India and China.

US trade secretary Howard Lutnick said on Friday’s press briefing that “all large companies” had been informed of new costs.

“A one hundred thousand dollars a year for H-1B visas, and all the big companies are on board. We talked to them,” Larick said at an oval office event with the American president.

“If you are going to train someone, you will train one of the recent graduates of one of the major universities in our country. Form Americans. Stop bringing people to take our jobs,” he said.

Trump’s threat to repress H-1B visas has become a major flash point with the technological industry, which has contributed millions of dollars to its presidential campaign. The technological industry is based, more than any other sector of the American economy, on H-1B visa holders. About two-thirds of the jobs provided within the framework of the H-1B program are linked to the computer, according to government figures, but employers also use the visa to call on engineers, educators and health workers.

In the first half of 2025, Amazon had approved more than 10,000 H-1B visas, while Microsoft and Meta Platforms each had more than 5,000 approvals. The H-1B program offers 65,000 visas per year to employers bringing temporary foreign workers to specialized areas, with 20,000 other visas for workers with advanced diplomas.

Critics of the program, including many workers in American technology, argue that it allows companies to suppress wages and the Americans from the touch that could work. Supporters, including the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, claim that this brings highly skilled workers essential to fill talent gaps and keep competitive companies. Musk, himself a naturalized American citizen born in South Africa, once held an H-1B visa.

The addition of new costs “creates a deterrent to attract the most intelligent talents in the world in the United States”, Deedy Das, partner of the venture capital company Menlo Ventures, wrote on X. “If the United States ceases to attract the best talents, this considerably reduces its ability to innovate and develop the economy”.

New costs could considerably increase costs for businesses, especially small technological businesses and startups.

“Either the person is very valuable for the company and America, or they are going to leave and the company will hire an American,” said Larick during the briefing. “And this is the goal of immigration. Hire Americans and make sure people arrive are the best and the best. Stop the nonsense. “

Immigration experts wonder if the executive power has the power to impose exorbitant annual costs.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, principal researcher at American Immigration Council, said on Bluesky: “The president literally has no legal authority to impose fees of $ 100,000 on visas. None. Zip. Zilch. The only authority in the congress has ever given the executive director here is to charge costs to recover the cost of processing the request. ”

As part of the current system, H-1B candidates pay a small sum to enter a lottery and, if they are selected, the subsequent costs that can rise to several thousand dollars, according to the case. Almost all visa costs must be paid by employers. H-1B visas are approved for a period of three to six years.

This decision is the last effort of the Trump administration to curb or collect more money from legal immigration. Last month, the United States launched a pilot program allowing consular officers to require obligations that are up to $ 15,000 for tourist and commercial visas with high surpassing rates or limited verification data. This followed Trump’s travel ban in June restricting the entrance to 19 nations. Trump’s administration has published several regulations to limit access to H-1B visas and give them to more paid employers, but the regulations were blocked before the Federal Court.

Reuters contributed the reports