Author Aditya Soni, Kristina Cooke and Nandita Bose
(Reuters). US President Donald Trump plans to introduce a new $ 100,000 application fee for H -1B employees’ visas, said the White House Officer, who can make a major impact on the technology sector, which depends a lot on India and China.
In the course of a broader immigration, the Republican President is expected to sign an ad on Friday, limiting the arrival under the H-1B visa program unless the application fee has been paid, the official said.
Reuters could not immediately determine information on who will be charged or how it will be administered.
The H-1B program has become the main Trump Conservative Base and Technology Industry, which brought millions of dollars to its presidential election campaign.
Program critics, including many US technology workers, say it allows companies to suppress salaries and side Americans to do jobs. Sponsors, including Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, say it provides highly qualified staff to fill in talent gaps and keep the companies competitive.
Adding new taxes “creates a deterrent to attract the smartest talent in the US to the United States,” said Deedy Das, a partner of Venture Capital Firm Menlo Ventures, X. “If the US stops attracting the best talents, it drastically reduces its ability to innovate and grow economics.”
A fee of $ 100,000 for companies could significantly increase costs. Although new taxes may not be discouraged by Big Tech, which regularly spent the best talents, it can squeeze smaller technology firms and start -ups.
About two -thirds of jobs for the program are associated with computers, according to government data, but employers also use a visa to attract engineers, educators and health care workers.
According to government data, India was the largest recipient of the H-1B visa last year, making 71% of the beneficiaries approved, while China was a long second -1.7%.
In the first 2025 More than 10,000 H-1B visas were confirmed in Amazon.com in the semester, while Microsoft and Meta had more than 5000 H-1B visas on the platforms.
The shares of the IT service company Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp, widely based on H-1B visa holders, as well as the US list of Indian technology firms Infosys and Wipro, decreased by more than 2%.
Microsoft refused to comment. Other companies, the Indian Embassy in Washington and the Chinese Consulate General in New York did not immediately respond to the requests to comment.
Immigration coping
Since January, Trump has begun a wide range of immigration, including steps to limit some forms of legal immigration. This move is reflecting the H-1B visa program most efforts to this day in order to repeat temporary employment visas.
The H-1B program offers 65,000 visas every year for employers who attract temporary foreign employees in specialized areas, while another 20,000 visas with a higher degree.
Under the current H-1B, candidates pay a small fee for the introduction of the lottery and, if selected, subsequent fees, which can be several thousand dollars, depending on the case. Employers have to pay almost all visa fees. H-1B visas are confirmed for three to six years.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, Director of the American Immigration Council, questioned the legitimacy of the proposed new taxes. “Congress only allowed the Government to determine taxes to recover the costs of the application,” he told Buesky.
Last month, the US launched a trial program for consular officials to demand up to $ 15,000 for bonds for tourist and business visas from countries with high overestimated norms or limited inspection data, the Federal Register report said.
This was followed by Trump’s June. The ban on traveling by restricting the entry of 19 nations is a part of the broader solid line immigration impetus, which has already discouraged some visitors and removed transatlantic aircraft tickets.
Trump’s first administration has published several rules aimed at limiting access to visas and providing them to the above employers, but regulations have been blocked in the Federal Court.
(Nandita Bose Notifications in Washington, Dheeeraj Kumar Bengaluuru and Aditya Soni and Greg Bensinger San Francisco; Extra Andy Sullivan Report in Washington; Edited by Rosalba O’Brien)