WASHINGTON (BN24) — President Donald Trump is preparing to sign a proclamation that would impose a $100,000 application fee for H-1B visa petitions, a dramatic increase in costs for U.S. employers seeking to hire foreign workers in specialized fields, a White House official said Thursday.
The proclamation, which could be signed as early as Friday, also includes additional reforms to the H-1B visa program, long criticized by the Trump administration as being abused by corporations to undercut American workers. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the signing, confirmed the details after they were first reported by Bloomberg News.
The H-1B program, created in 1990, allows employers to hire foreign workers with at least a bachelor’s degree in occupations deemed difficult to fill with U.S. workers, particularly in science, technology, engineering and math. Each year, 85,000 visas are issued through a lottery system.
But critics, including Trump, argue the system has strayed from its original purpose. Instead of being reserved for “the best and brightest,” they say the program has become a pipeline for outsourcing firms and contractors who often pay foreign employees salaries far below what U.S. workers earn. Many H-1B workers make around $60,000 annually, compared with more than $100,000 for U.S. tech employees.
Amazon received more than 10,000 H-1B visas this year, the highest among U.S. companies, followed by Tata Consultancy, Microsoft, Apple and Google. California remains the state with the largest share of H-1B workers, according to federal data.
The Trump administration has repeatedly sought to overhaul the program. During his first term, Trump floated changes to award visas based on wages rather than random lottery selection, a reform labor groups such as the AFL-CIO also support. The administration argues higher application fees would discourage misuse of the system by staffing firms and prioritize companies offering competitive salaries.
“The program suffers from a split personality disorder,” said Doug Rand, former director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services during the Biden administration. “Half the visas go to established companies that provide stable employment. The other half go to consulting firms that effectively rent out workers to larger corporations.”
Recent years have seen sharp declines in lottery entries following federal crackdowns on multiple applications submitted to boost selection odds. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said bids for H-1B visas dropped nearly 40% in 2024 after new rules limited applicants to one lottery entry regardless of the number of job offers.
Still, critics say abuses persist. While some outsourcing giants such as Wipro, Infosys, HCL Technologies and Tata Consultancy rely heavily on H-1B workers from India, others argue the system depresses wages for U.S. workers and exploits foreign labor.
The debate over the program has even touched the First Family. First Lady Melania Trump, then Melania Knauss, obtained an H-1B visa in 1996 to work as a fashion model after immigrating from Slovenia.
Trump’s latest move marks the most sweeping cost increase in the program’s history and could redefine how major corporations and consulting firms hire foreign workers.
