In a move that has sent shockwaves from Silicon Valley to Bangalore, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Friday, September 19, 2025, imposing a staggering $100,000 annual fee on H1-B visa applications. This new rule, set to take effect on September 21, 2025, is a dramatic overhaul of the skilled-worker visa program aimed at protecting American jobs. But what does this mean for the future of skilled foreign workers in the US? Let’s break it down.
To understand how massive this change is, let’s look at the old fee structure. Previously, companies paid a series of smaller fees, including a $215 registration fee and a $780 petition filing fee, which rarely exceeded a few thousand dollars in total, excluding legal costs. The jump to a $100,000 annual fee is less of a hike and more of a rocket launch into a different financial stratosphere, fundamentally altering the economics of hiring foreign talent.
The administration’s rationale is to force companies to prioritize American talent. The argument is that the H1-B program has been “abused” by companies to hire foreign workers for lower wages instead of investing in the domestic workforce. By making it prohibitively expensive, the White House believes companies will be incentivized to hire and train Americans, reserving the H1-B for only the most exceptional, high-skilled, and highly-paid foreign professionals.
This policy change will disproportionately affect India, which accounts for over 70% of all H1-B visas issued. For decades, the H1-B has been a cornerstone of India’s booming IT services industry, allowing companies like TCS, Infosys, and Wipro to place skilled engineers in the US. The new fee could cripple this model, making it too costly to send junior or mid-level professionals. While the Indian government has not yet issued a formal statement, prominent figures have weighed in. Amitabh Kant, former CEO of NITI Aayog, boldly called the move “America’s loss, India’s gain,” suggesting it will choke US innovation and drive top talent and startups back to cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad.
The announcement has been met with a mix of alarm and applause. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick defended the move, claiming “all the big companies are on board.” However, the tech industry and immigration lawyers are sounding the alarm. Deedy Das, a partner at Menlo Ventures, posted on X (formerly Twitter) that this “creates a disincentive to attract the world’s smartest talent to the US.” This sentiment is echoed across social media, where skilled Indian workers are expressing deep anxiety and uncertainty about their futures, with many now looking at opportunities in other countries like Canada and the UK. The long-term effects on the US economy and its position as a global tech leader remain to be seen.
