Are you safe from Trump’s $100,000 H-1B fee? Key details on new rule here

The Donald Trump administration on Friday, September 19, announced its decision to ask companies to pay $100,000 per year for H-1B worker visas. The latest move could have a significant impact on the technology sector that employs skilled workers from countries like India and China. According to Reuters, several big tech firms have warned visa holders to either stay in the country or return soon.

Trump, who took the oath as the US President for the second time in January this year, has launched a major immigration crackdown across the country, which includes moves to limit a few forms of legal immigration. The latest step towards reshaping the H-1B visa program highlights the Trump administration's major step towards reworking temporary employment visas, the news agency said.

"If you're going to train somebody, you're going to train one of the recent graduates from one of the great universities across our land. Train Americans. Stop bringing in people to take our jobs," said US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Deedy Das, partner at venture capital firm Menlo Ventures, wrote on X that big tech companies as well as startups “do hire a lot of H-1Bs because the local talent just does not always exist.”

This means that all types of companies will be required to pay $100,000 on a yearly basis for any employee who is working on the visa. This needs to be done for up to six years.

Those who will get severely affected by this decision are new applicants and people looking forward to renewing their visas, which are usually granted for three-six years.

Reuters reported that nearly all the visa fees will be paid by the employers.

People who have recently received their visas remain safe from this decision for now.

Deedy Das suggested that adding new fees for visas "creates disincentive to attract the world's smartest talent" to the country.

"If the US ceases to attract the best talent, it drastically reduces it's ability to innovate and grow the economy. It makes US' global competitiveness a lot worse," Das added.

Analysts predict the latest decision might force several companies in the US to shift some high-value work overseas.

Also Read: H-1B visa fee hiked to $100,000, but how much does it cost right now?

"In the short term, Washington may collect a windfall; in the long term, the U.S. Risks taxing away its innovation edge, trading dynamism for short-sighted protectionism," Reuters quoted eMarketer analyst Jeremy Goldman as saying.

In 2024, India remained the largest beneficiary of H-1B visas. It accounted for 71 per cent of the total approved beneficiaries. China was in the second position at 11.7 per cent, government data shows.

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

Also Read: H-1B Visa fee hike: ‘Return to US ASAP,’ Amazon, JPMorgan, Microsoft tell staff

The number of H-1B applications remains capped at 85,000 per year.

These are approved for a period of three to six years.

More than 70% of beneficiaries of H-1B visas enter the US from India.

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