Trump Slaps $100,000 Fee On H-1B Visas: What It Means For Indians

The H-1B visa is a temporary US work visa enabling companies to employ foreign skilled professionals.

US President Donald Trump recently signed a proclamation imposing a $100,000 (approximately Rs 88 lakh) fee on H-1B visa applicants as part of his intensified immigration restrictions. This decision could significantly impact the technology industry, which heavily depends on skilled workers from countries like India and China.

Trump explained that this measure aims to ensure that incoming workers are "actually very highly skilled" and don't replace American workers. "We need workers. We need great workers, and this pretty much ensures that that's what's going to happen," he stated.

White House staff secretary Will Scharf described the H-1B non-immigrant visa program as one of the "most abused visa" systems in America's current immigration framework. "What this proclamation will do is raise the fee that companies pay to sponsor H-1B applicants to $100,000. This will ensure that the people they're bringing in are actually very highly skilled and that they're not replaceable by American workers," Scharf explained.

.@POTUS signs a Proclamation to restrict the entry of certain H-1B aliens into the U.S. as nonimmigrant workers, requiring a $100,000 payment to accompany or supplement H-1B petitions for new applications.AMERICA FIRST! pic.twitter.com/AzAUJzXawV

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 19, 2025

The H-1B visa is a temporary US work permit allowing companies to recruit foreign professionals with specialized expertise. Created in 1990, it targets individuals holding bachelor's degrees or higher in fields with staffing shortages, particularly science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Initially granted for three years, the visa can be extended up to six years. For Green Card recipients, indefinite renewal is possible. Applicants register online with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), followed by a lottery-based selection process. According to Bloomberg, the Trump administration is considering further modifications to application evaluation procedures.

Once approved, visa holders are entitled to equal compensation and comparable working conditions as their American counterparts.

Indians consistently constitute the majority of H-1B visa recipients. Government data shows that India was the largest beneficiary last year, representing 71 percent of approved applicants, as reported by Reuters. China followed at a distant 11.7 percent.

In the first half of 2025, Amazon and its cloud-computing division AWS reportedly received approval for over 12,000 H-1B visas, while Microsoft and Meta Platforms each secured more than 5,000 approvals.

Trump's new fee structure will likely compound difficulties for Indian visa applicants. Although Indians can apply for Green Cards, waiting periods are typically extended. During this interval, they must periodically renew their visas, each time paying over Rs 88 lakh.

Additionally, the US government is reinstating a more rigorous citizenship test—originally implemented during Trump's 2020 presidency but later abandoned by the Biden administration. Reports indicate applicants will need to study 128 questions covering US history and politics, correctly answering 12 out of 20 questions in an oral examination.

Trump also signed an executive order establishing a 'Gold Card' visa program with fees of $1 million for individuals and $2 million for businesses. "We think it's going to be very successful... It's going to raise billions of dollars, which will reduce taxes, pay off debt, and do other good things," the Republican leader remarked.

Through the 'Gold Card' initiative, the US will only admit "extraordinary people at the very top" capable of creating businesses and jobs for Americans, according to US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.

Lutnick criticized the existing employment-based green card program as "illogical," noting that the US was accepting "bottom quartile" individuals earning only $66,000 annually.

"Historically, the employment-based green card program led in 2,81,000 people a year. And those people, on average, earned $66,000 a year, and they were five times more likely to go on government assistance programs. So we were taking in the bottom quartile, below the average American. It was illogical. The only country in the world that was taking in the bottom quartile. We are going to stop doing that," he concluded.