U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as he sits subsequent to a “Trump Gold Card” signal, within the Oval Workplace on the White Home in Washington, D.C., U.S., Sept. 19, 2025.
Ken Cedeno | Reuters
Main expertise firms and overseas governments are dashing to reply after President Donald Trump late Friday introduced plans to impose a $100,000 fee on H-1B visas, threatening to upend this system that underpins America’s expertise workforce.
The price would apply to new H-1B candidates, not renewals or present visa holders, in response to a White Home official. It is going to first apply within the upcoming lottery cycle, and it doesn’t apply to 2025 lottery winners, the individual mentioned. The White Home additionally clarified that the brand new $100,000 price will not be an annual cost, as beforehand reported by a number of media retailers.
The transfer might deal an enormous blow to firms — primarily within the expertise and finance sectors — that rely closely on extremely expert immigrants, significantly from India and China.
The announcement despatched shockwaves by way of a few of the nation’s greatest tech and finance firms:
- Amazon’s immigration staff suggested its H-1B and H-4 visa holders to stay within the U.S. and for these abroad to return earlier than 12:01 a.m. ET on Sept. 21, in response to inside messages considered by CNBC.
- JPMorgan Chase’s legislation agency despatched a memo asking H-1B visa holders on the agency to stay within the U.S. and keep away from worldwide journey till additional steering, in response to an individual conversant in the matter.
- Goldman Sachs advised staff holding H-1B visas to train warning when touring internationally primarily based on steering from immigration providers agency Fragomen, in response to an inside memo seen by Reuters.
- Microsoft additionally has reportedly suggested H-1B visa holders to stay within the U.S. and for these abroad to return, warning that worldwide journey might jeopardize their immigration standing, in response to emails seen by Reuters.
The price represents the administration’s most aggressive transfer but to limit authorized immigration. Since taking workplace in January, Trump has superior a broad crackdown on each unlawful and authorized entry into the U.S., however Friday’s announcement marks essentially the most vital try and clamp down on employment visas.
Amazon employed essentially the most H-1B holders — greater than 14,000 as of the top of June. Microsoft, Meta, Apple and Google had over 4,000 such visas every, among the many high 10 recipients for the fiscal yr 2025.
CNBC has reached out to all the public firms on the highest 10 H-1B recipient checklist for remark. The White Home did not instantly reply to an e-mail asking for remark.
“President Trump promised to place American employees first, and this commonsense motion does simply that by discouraging firms from spamming the system and driving down wages,” Taylor Rogers, a White Home spokeswoman, advised CNBC. “It additionally offers certainty to American companies who truly need to convey high-skilled employees to our nice nation however have been trampled on by abuses of the system.”
‘Humanitarian penalties’
The announcement additionally disrupted the established order abroad, the place overseas governments scrambled to evaluate the influence of the brand new guidelines on their international locations.
India’s Ministry of Exterior Affairs mentioned it’s learning the visa restrictions and their implications, stressing that each Indian and U.S. industries share an curiosity in sustaining competitiveness in innovation. It additionally highlighted the doubtless disruption to particular person households.
“This measure is more likely to have humanitarian penalties by means of the disruption triggered for households. Authorities hopes that these disruptions will be addressed suitably by the US authorities,” India’s Ministry of Exterior Affairs mentioned in a press release.
South Korea’s overseas ministry additionally mentioned it’s assessing the implications for Korean companies and expert employees.
Under is a searchable checklist of the highest 100 U.S. firms which have been H1-B recipients in fiscal yr 2025.
— CNBC’s Annie Palmer contributed to this report.
