Rs 90 Lakh Annual Jolt: Trump Raises H1-B Visa Fee To $100,000; Move To Significantly Impact Indian Workers
The fee would apply to new applicants and is bound to impact thousands of Indians working in the US..
Published : September 20, 2025 at 6:41 AM IST
New Delhi/Washington: US President Donald Trump on Friday signed a proclamation that will require a new annual $100,000 fee (around Rs 90 lakh) for H-1B visa applications and renewals, while also rolling out a $1 million “gold card” visa as a potential pathway to US citizenship.
The move to significantly increase H-1B visa fees is bound to adversely impact Indian professionals in the US, as thousands of them live and work in the States as H-1B visa holders. According to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data, 207,000 Indians received H-1B visas in FY 2024. The number was 191,000 in FY 2023.
The existing costs for an H-1B visa are: Registration $215, base filing $460, anti-fraud $500, and an additional employer fee $4,000, depending on company size and workforce composition.
The $100,000 annual fee is thus a massive increase and would have a major impact on companies, especially those in technology, who would hire employees from outside the US. The decision is Trump's attempt to reshape the US visa system for highly skilled foreign workers and investors, while also cracking down on immigration.
The H-1B program was created in 1990 for people with a bachelor’s degree or higher in fields where jobs are deemed hard to fill, especially science, technology, engineering and math. Critics say they allow companies to pay lower wages with fewer labour protections.
Historically, these visas have been doled out through a lottery system. This year, Amazon was by far the top recipient of H-1B visas with more than 10,000 awarded, followed by Tata Consultancy, Microsoft, Apple and Google. Geographically, California has the highest number of H-1B workers, according to UCIS.
Critics say H-1B spots often go to entry-level jobs, rather than senior positions with unique skill requirements. And while the program isn’t supposed to undercut US wages or displace US workers, critics say companies can pay less by classifying jobs at the lowest skill levels, even if the specific workers hired have more experience.
As a result, many US companies find it cheaper simply to contract out help desks, programming and other basic tasks to consulting companies such as Wipro, Infosys, HCL Technologies and Tata in India and IBM and Cognizant in the U.S. These consulting companies hire foreign workers, often from India, and contract them out to US employers looking to save money.
'Most Abused Visa'
White House staff secretary Will Scharf said the H-1B non-immigrant visa programme is one of the “most abused visa” systems in the country’s current immigration system, and it is supposed to allow highly skilled labourers, who work in fields that Americans don't work in, to come into the United States.
The Trump administration said that the $100,000 fee is aimed at ensuring that the people being brought into the country are “actually very highly skilled” and do not replace American workers.
The move is aimed at protecting American workers while ensuring that companies have a pathway to hire “truly extraordinary people” and bring them to the United States. Companies pay to sponsor H1B applicants.
“We need workers. We need workers. We need great workers, and this pretty much ensures that that's what's going to happen,” Trump said, as he signed the proclamation in the Oval Office in the presence of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
New Fee Applies To New Applications
Upon being asked if the new USD 100,000 fee will apply to the H1-B visa holders already in the country, to renewals or to those applying for the first time from abroad, Lutnick said, “Renewals, first times, the company needs to decide. Is that person valuable enough to have USD 100,000 a year payment to the government, or they should head home and they (companies) should go hire an American?
“It can be a total of six years, so USD 100,000 a year. So either the person is very valuable to the company and America, or they're going to depart and the company is going to hire an American. That’s the point of immigration - hire Americans and make sure the people coming in are the top, top people. Stop the nonsense of letting people just come into this country on these visas that were given away for free. The President is crystal clear. Valuable people only for America. Stop the nonsense,” Lutnick said.
However, on Saturday, a White House official stated that "The H-1B fee is likely to face legal challenges. But if it survives, companies that hire skilled international workers would have to pay USD 100,000 each year for any employee working on the visa, for up to six years. The fee applies only to new applicants."
Indian Workers To Be Significantly Impacted
The move is going to significantly impact Indians who are hired by technology companies and others on H1-B visas. The visas are valid for three years and can be renewed for another three years.
If a company sponsors an employee for the Green Card, the visas can be renewed till the permanent residency comes through. However, Indians on work visas in the US are caught in a decades-long wait for Green Cards and the new move could have an impact on whether they can continue to stay in the US if their companies decide not to pay the USD 100,000 fee annually now required to retain the visas.
"So the whole idea is, no more will these big tech companies or other big companies train foreign workers. They have to pay the government USD 100,000, then they have to pay the employee. So it's just not economic. 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. That's the policy here. And all of the big companies are on board. We've spoken to them about,” Lutnick said.
Trump Says Tech Industry Would 'Love It'
Trump insisted that the tech industry would not oppose the move. "They really love it. They really love it. They need it”. "The main thing is, we're going to have great people coming in."
Representatives for the biggest tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta, did not immediately respond to messages for comment on Friday. Microsoft declined to comment.
“So no longer will you put trainees on an H-1B visa,” Lutnick said on a call with reporters. “That it’s just not economic anymore. If you’re going to train people, you’re going to train Americans. ... If you have a very sophisticated engineer and you want to bring them in ... then you can pay $100,000 a year for your H-1B visa.”
Trump Also Announces "Gold Card" Visa
Trump also announced he will start selling a “gold card” visa with a potential pathway to U.S. citizenship. The “Trump Gold Card” will be available for a processing fee and a $1 million contribution after vetting. For companies, it will cost $2 million.
The “Trump Platinum Card,” meanwhile, will be available for a $5 million contribution and will allow foreigners to spend up to 270 days in the U.S. without being subject to U.S. taxes on non-U.S. income. Trump announced a $5 million gold card in February to replace an existing investor visa — this is now the platinum card. Applicants can sign up now for a waitlist for the platinum card, but it still needs to be approved by Congress.
“We're taking in hundreds of billions of dollars. The Gold Card will be taking in hundreds of billions of dollars, and companies will be able to keep some people they need. They need people of expertise, great expertise. I think it's going to be a fantastic thing, and we're going to take that money and we're going to reduce taxes, we're going to reduce debt,” Trump said.
Fan Service For Immigration Restrictionists: Former USCIS Director
Doug Rand, who served as the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services during the Biden administration, said this amounts to a “split personality disorder” for the program, with only about half of the visas each year going to traditional companies that offer long-term employment and can put immigrants on a track to citizenship. The other half go to staffing or consulting firms — and while many are established and well-known companies, others are just one-person operations that wouldn’t exist without the H-1B program.
Rand said this “is going to be a really lousy weekend for litigators who just had their Friday night dinners interrupted by a ludicrously lawless presidential proclamation, set to go into effect on Sunday morning at 12:01 am.”
“This isn’t real policy -- it’s fan service for immigration restrictionists,” Rand said. “Trump gets his headlines, and inflicts a jolt of panic, and doesn’t care whether this survives first contact with the courts.”
“They’re basically entering the lottery so they can hire people that they then rent out to other larger companies doing actual work,” Rand said. “And so there’s a lot of misbehaviour and chicanery in this part of the system.” (With AP inputs)
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