Trump's New H-1B Visa Fee: A Game-Changer for Tech Employment

US President Donald Trump has signed a proclamation introducing a $100,000 annual fee for H-1B visa applications, aiming to reform the skilled foreign worker program. This move is designed to address long-standing criticisms and abuses in the system.

Originally intended to attract top talent for specialized roles, the H-1B program has often been used to hire workers at lower salaries—around $60,000 annually—compared to the $100,000-plus typical for American tech professionals. Trump expressed optimism, stating, "I think they're going to be very happy," in reference to the tech industry's potential response.

White House staff secretary Will Scharf highlighted that the fee increase to $100,000 will ensure companies bring in only highly skilled, irreplaceable workers, not those who could be substituted by Americans. Interestingly, First Lady Melania Trump herself received an H-1B visa in 1996 for modeling work.

Established in 1990, the H-1B program targets individuals with bachelor's degrees or higher in hard-to-fill STEM positions. Critics argue it has led to lower wages and poor worker protections. The annual cap is 85,000 visas, traditionally allocated via a lottery, but applications dropped nearly 40% in 2024 due to reforms preventing multiple entries.

Major tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and Google are top approvers, with California hosting the largest H-1B workforce. However, many roles are junior-level, not senior specialist jobs, allowing companies to cut costs by classifying positions at lower skill levels while employing experienced workers. This has fueled outsourcing to consultancies such as Wipro, Infosys, and Tata, which often hire workers from India for American firms.

Significance of the New Rule

The fee hike could make hiring foreign workers more expensive, potentially discouraging mass applications. Currently, companies pay $215 for lottery registration and $780 for the Form I-129 petition. The increased cost may hit startups and small businesses hard, shifting focus back to American tech workers.

This change aims to curb abuse, where foreigners are hired for entry-level roles at lower wages than Americans. By making foreign talent equally costly, opportunities for H-1B-dependent workers might decrease. The overhaul is part of broader efforts to reform the lottery system, raise wage requirements, and protect American employment in tech, prioritizing high-wage, high-skill foreign workers while opening more jobs for US graduates.