The Trump administration said on Friday it would ask companies to pay US$100 000 (R1.7-million) per year for H-1B worker visas, prompting some big tech companies to warn visa holders to stay in the US or quickly return.
The change could deal a big blow to the technology sector that relies heavily on skilled workers from India and China.
Since taking office in January, Trump has kicked off a wide-ranging immigration crackdown, including moves to limit some forms of legal immigration. The step to reshape the H-1B visa programme represents his administration’s most high-profile effort yet to rework 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,” said commerce secretary Howard Lutnick. Train Americans. Stop bringing in people to take our jobs.”
Trump’s threat to crack down on H-1B visas has become a major flashpoint with the tech industry, which contributed millions of dollars to his presidential campaign.
Microsoft, JPMorgan and Amazon responded to the announcement by advising employees holding H-1B visas to remain in the US, according to internal e-mails seen by Reuters.
“H-1B visa holders who are currently in the US should remain in the U.S. and avoid international travel until the government issues clear travel guidance,” read an e-mail sent to JPMorgan employees by Ogletree Deakins, a company that handles visa applications for the US investment bank.
‘Taxing away innovation’
Critics of the H-1B programme, including many US technology workers, argue that it allows firms to suppress wages and sideline Americans who could do the jobs. Supporters, including Tesla CEO and former Trump ally Elon Musk, say it brings in highly skilled workers essential to filling talent gaps and keeping firms competitive. Musk, himself a naturalised US citizen born in South Africa, has held an H-1B visa.
Some employers have exploited the programme to hold down wages, disadvantaging US workers, according to the executive order Trump signed on Friday.
The number of foreign science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) workers in the US more than doubled between 2000 and 2019 to nearly 2.5 million, even as overall Stem employment only increased 44.5% during that time, it said.
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Adding new fees “creates disincentive to attract the world’s smartest talent to the US”, said Deedy Das, partner at venture capital firm Menlo Ventures, on X. “If the US ceases to attract the best talent, it drastically reduces its ability to innovate and grow the economy.”
The move could add millions of dollars in costs for companies, which could hit smaller tech firms and start-ups particularly hard. Lutnick said the visa would cost $100 000/year for each of the three years of its duration but that the details were “still being considered.”
Under the current system, entering the lottery for the visa requires a small fee and, if approved, subsequent fees could amount to several thousand dollars. Some analysts suggested the fee may force companies to move some high-value work overseas, hampering 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 US risks taxing away its innovation edge, trading dynamism for short-sighted protectionism,” said eMarketer analyst Jeremy Goldman.
India was the largest beneficiary of H-1B visas last year, accounting for 71% of approved beneficiaries, while China was a distant second at 11.7%, according to government data.
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 had over 5 000 H-1B visa approvals each.
Lutnick said on Friday that “all the big companies are on board” with $100 000 a year for H-1B visas. “We’ve spoken to them,” he said.
The H-1B programme offers 65 000 visas annually to employers bringing in temporary foreign workers in specialised fields, with another 20 000 visas for workers with advanced degrees. Nearly all the visa fees have to be paid by the employers. The H-1B visas are approved for a period of three to six years.
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Trump also signed an executive order on Friday to create a “gold card” for individuals who can afford to pay $1-million for US permanent residency. — Aditya Soni, Kristina Cooke, Jeff Mason, Siddharth Cavale and Nupur Anand, with Gnaneshwar Rajan, Preetika Parashuraman and Greg Bensinger, (c) 2025 Reuters
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