President Donald Trump plans to impose a new $100,000 utility payment for H-1B employee visas, a White Home official mentioned, probably dealing an enormous blow to the expertise sector that depends closely on expert staff from India and China.
As a part of his broader immigration crackdown, the Republican president was anticipated to signal a proclamation as early as Friday proscribing entry underneath the H-1B visa program until the applying payment is paid, the official mentioned.
Reuters was not instantly in a position to set up particulars of who the payment would apply to or how it could be administered.
The H-1B program has turn into a significant flashpoint between Trump’s conservative base and the tech business that contributed tens of millions of {dollars} to his presidential marketing campaign.
Critics of this system, together with many U.S. expertise staff, argue that it permits companies to suppress wages and sideline People who may do the roles. Supporters, together with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, say it brings in extremely expert staff important to filling expertise gaps and holding companies aggressive.
Including new charges “creates disincentive to draw the world’s smartest expertise to the U.S.,” mentioned Deedy Das, companion at enterprise capital agency Menlo Ventures, on X. “If the U.S. ceases to draw the very best expertise, it drastically reduces its capacity to innovate and develop the economic system.”
The $100,000 payment may considerably push up prices for corporations. Whereas the new charges could not deter Massive Tech, which routinely spends closely to safe prime expertise, it may squeeze smaller tech companies and start-ups.
Roughly two-thirds of jobs secured by this system are computer-related, authorities figures present, however employers additionally use the visa to usher in engineers, educators and healthcare staff.
India was the biggest beneficiary of H-1B visas final 12 months, accounting for 71% of authorised beneficiaries, whereas China was a distant second at 11.7%, based on authorities information.
Within the first half of 2025, Amazon.com AMZN.O had greater than 10,000 H-1B visas authorised, whereas Microsoft MSFT.O and Meta Platforms META.O had over 5,000 H-1B visa approvals every.
Shares of Cognizant Know-how Options Corp CTSH.O, an IT companies firm that depends extensively on H-1B visa holders, in addition to U.S.-listed shares of Indian tech companies Infosys INFY.Ok and Wipro WIT.N, fell greater than 2% every.
Microsoft declined to remark. The opposite corporations, the Indian embassy in Washington, and the Chinese language Consulate Normal in New York didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Immigration crackdown
Since taking workplace in January, Trump has kicked off a wide-ranging immigration crackdown, together with strikes to restrict some types of authorized immigration. The transfer to reshape the H-1B visa program represents his administration’s most high-profile effort to this point to transform non permanent employment visas.
The H-1B program affords 65,000 visas yearly to employers bringing in non permanent overseas staff in specialised fields, with one other 20,000 visas for staff with superior levels.
Below the present system, H-1B candidates pay a small payment to enter a lottery and, if chosen, subsequent charges that may quantity to a number of thousand {dollars} relying on the case. Practically all of the visa charges need to be paid by the employers. The H-1B visas are authorised for a interval of three to 6 years.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, coverage director of the American Immigration Council, questioned the legality of the proposed new charges. “Congress has solely licensed the federal government to set charges to recuperate the price of adjudicating an utility,” he mentioned on Bluesky.
Final month, the U.S. launched a pilot program permitting consular officers to demand bonds of as much as $15,000 for vacationer and enterprise visas from nations with excessive overstay charges or restricted vetting information, a Federal Register discover mentioned.
That adopted Trump’s June journey ban proscribing entry from 19 nations, a part of a broader hardline immigration push that has already deterred some guests and pushed down transatlantic airfares.
Trump’s first-term administration issued a number of laws that aimed to restrict entry to the visas and provides them to higher-paying employers, however the laws had been blocked in federal courtroom.
Corporations most depending on U.S.-based staff with H-1B visas: https://reut.rs/4mpP387