The Trump administration stated on Friday it might ask corporations to pay $100,000 per 12 months for H-1B employee visas, prompting some massive tech corporations to warn visa holders to remain within the U.S. or rapidly return.
The change may deal an enormous blow to the expertise sector that depends closely on expert staff from India and China.
Since taking workplace in January, Trump has kicked off a wide-ranging immigration crackdown, together with strikes to restrict some types of authorized immigration. The step to reshape the H-1B visa program represents his administration’s most high-profile effort but to remodel non permanent employment visas.
“Should you’re going to coach any individual, you’re going to coach one of many current graduates from one of many nice universities throughout our land,” stated Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Practice People. Cease bringing in folks to take our jobs.”
Trump’s risk to crack down on H-1B visas has turn out to be a significant flashpoint with the tech business, which contributed hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to his presidential marketing campaign.
Microsoft, JPMorgan and Amazon responded to the announcement by advising workers holding H-1B visas to stay in the USA, in response to inside emails reviewed by Reuters.
They suggested workers on the H-1B visas who have been exterior the U.S. to return earlier than midnight on Saturday (0400 GMT on Sunday), when the brand new price constructions are set to take impact.
Story continues beneath this advert
“H-1B visa holders who’re at the moment within the U.S. ought to stay within the U.S. and keep away from worldwide journey till the federal government points clear journey steerage,” learn an e-mail despatched to JPMorgan workers by Ogletree Deakins, an organization that handles visa functions for the U.S. funding financial institution.
Microsoft, JPMorgan, legislation agency Ogletree Deakins, which represents the financial institution on the problem, and Amazon didn’t instantly reply to Reuters requests for remark.
Critics of the H-1B program, together with many U.S. expertise staff, argue that it permits corporations to suppress wages and sideline People who may do the roles. Supporters, together with Tesla CEO and former Trump ally Elon Musk, say it brings in extremely expert staff important to filling expertise gaps and retaining corporations aggressive. Musk, himself a naturalized U.S. citizen born in South Africa, has held an H-1B visa.
Some employers have exploited this system to carry down wages, disadvantaging U.S. staff, in response to the manager order Trump signed on Friday.
Story continues beneath this advert
The variety of international science, expertise, engineering and arithmetic (STEM) staff within the U.S. greater than doubled between 2000 and 2019 to almost 2.5 million, whilst total STEM employment solely elevated 44.5% throughout that point, it stated.
MOVE COULD DETER GLOBAL TALENT
Including new charges “creates disincentive to draw the world’s smartest expertise to the U.S.,” stated Deedy Das, companion at enterprise capital agency Menlo Ventures, on X. “If the U.S. ceases to draw the perfect expertise, it drastically reduces its means to innovate and develop the financial system.”
The transfer may add hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in prices for corporations, which may hit smaller tech corporations and start-ups significantly onerous.
Reuters was not instantly capable of set up how the price could be administered. Lutnick stated the visa would value $100,000 a 12 months for every of the three years of its period however that the main points have been “nonetheless being thought of.”
Story continues beneath this advert
Below the present system, coming into the lottery for the visa requires a small price and, if accepted, subsequent charges may quantity to a number of thousand {dollars}.
Some analysts urged the price might power corporations to maneuver some high-value work abroad, hampering America’s place within the high-stakes synthetic intelligence race with China.
“Within the brief time period, Washington might accumulate a windfall; in the long run, the U.S. dangers taxing away its innovation edge, buying and selling dynamism for short-sighted protectionism,” stated eMarketer analyst Jeremy Goldman.
INDIA ACCOUNTS FOR MOST H-1B VISAS
India was the biggest beneficiary of H-1B visas final 12 months, accounting for 71% of accepted beneficiaries, whereas China was a distant second at 11.7%, in response to authorities knowledge.
Story continues beneath this advert
Within the first half of 2025, Amazon.com and its cloud-computing unit, AWS, had obtained approval for greater than 12,000 H-1B visas, whereas Microsoft and Meta Platforms had over 5,000 H-1B visa approvals every.
Lutnick stated on Friday that “all the large corporations are on board” with $100,000 a 12 months for H-1B visas.
“We’ve spoken to them,” he stated.
Many giant U.S. tech, banking and consulting corporations declined to remark or didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. The Indian embassy in Washington and the Chinese language Consulate Basic in New York additionally didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Shares of Cognizant Expertise Options, an IT providers firm that depends extensively on H-1B visa holders, closed down almost 5%. U.S.-listed shares of Indian tech corporations Infosys and Wipro closed between 2% and 5% decrease.
Story continues beneath this advert
IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, coverage director of the American Immigration Council, questioned the legality of the brand new charges. “Congress has solely licensed the federal government to set charges to get well the price of adjudicating an software,” he stated on Bluesky.
The H-1B program affords 65,000 visas yearly to employers bringing in non permanent international staff in specialised fields, with one other 20,000 visas for staff with superior levels.
Almost all of the visa charges need to be paid by the employers. The H-1B visas are accepted for a interval of three to 6 years.
Trump additionally signed an govt order on Friday to create a “gold card” for people who can afford to pay $1 million for U.S. everlasting residency.