Trump Administration Proposes Drastic Increase in H-1B Visa Fees, Impacting Tech Sector

The Trump administration announced on Friday that it will require companies to pay $100,000 annually for H-1B worker visas, a move that could significantly harm the technology sector, which heavily depends on skilled workers from countries like India and China. Since taking office in January, Trump has initiated a broad crackdown on immigration, including efforts to restrict some forms of legal immigration. This plan to overhaul the H-1B visa program represents his administration’s most significant attempt yet to reform temporary employment visas. “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 U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Trump’s threat to restrict H-1B visas has become a major point of contention with the tech industry, which contributed millions of dollars to his presidential campaign. Critics of the program, including many U.S. tech workers, argue that it allows companies to suppress wages and sideline Americans who are capable of doing the jobs. Supporters, including Tesla CEO and former Trump ally Elon Musk, counter that it attracts highly skilled workers who are essential for filling talent gaps and keeping firms competitive. Musk, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in South Africa, himself previously held an H-1B visa. According to the executive order signed by Trump on Friday, some employers have exploited the program to hold down wages, which has disadvantaged U.S. workers. The order stated that the number of foreign science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workers in the U.S. more than doubled between 2000 and 2019 to nearly 2.5 million, while overall STEM employment only increased by 44.5% during the same period. This could deter global talent: Deedy Das, a partner at venture capital firm Menlo Ventures, commented on X that adding new fees “creates a disincentive to attract the world’s smartest talent to the US.” He added, “If the US ceases to attract the best talent, it drastically reduces its ability to innovate and grow the economy.” The measure could add millions of dollars in costs for companies, which would hit smaller tech firms and startups particularly hard. Reuters was not immediately able to confirm how the fee would be implemented. Lutnick said the visa would cost $100,000 per year for each of its three years, but that the specifics were “still being considered.” Some analysts suggested the fee might compel companies to move high-value work overseas, potentially hindering America’s position in the high-stakes artificial intelligence race with China. “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,” said eMarketer analyst Jeremy Goldman. India accounts for most H-1B visas: According to government data, India was the largest recipient of H-1B visas last year, accounting for 71% of approved beneficiaries, while China was a distant second at 11.7%. In the first half of 2025, Amazon.com and its cloud-computing unit, AWS, had received approval for more than 12,000 H-1B visas, while Microsoft and Meta Platforms each had over 5,000 H-1B visa approvals. Lutnick said on Friday that “all the big companies are on board” with the $100,000 annual fee for H-1B visas. “We’ve spoken to them,” he said. Many large U.S. tech, banking, and consulting companies declined to comment or did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Indian embassy in Washington and the Chinese Consulate General in New York also did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions, an IT services company that heavily relies on H-1B visa holders, closed down nearly 5%. U.S.-listed shares of Indian tech firms Infosys and Wipro closed between 2% and 5% lower. Immigration crackdown: Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director of the American Immigration Council, questioned the legality of the new fees. “Congress has only authorized the government to set fees to recover the cost of adjudicating an application,” he stated on Bluesky. The H-1B program offers 65,000 visas annually to employers who want to bring in temporary foreign workers in specialized fields, with an additional 20,000 visas for workers with advanced degrees. Under the current system, entering the visa lottery requires a small fee, and if approved, subsequent fees can amount to several thousand dollars. Nearly all of the visa fees must be paid by the employers. H-1B visas are approved for a period of three to six years. Trump also signed an executive order on Friday to create a “gold card” for individuals who can afford to pay $1 million for U.S. permanent residency.