Politics
Trump administration to impose $100,000 fee per year for H-1B visas
- Visas are used principally by tech sector.
- Over 70% of beneficiaries of H-1B visas enter US from India.
- Latest move in Trump’s broader immigration crackdown.
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration said on Friday it would ask companies to pay $100,000 per year for H-1B worker visas, potentially dealing a big blow to the technology sector that relies heavily on skilled workers from India and China.
Since taking office in January, Trump has kicked off a wide-ranging immigration crackdown, including moves to limit some forms of legal immigration. The step to reshape the H-1B visa program represents his administration’s most high-profile effort yet to rework temporary employment visas.
“If you’re going to train somebody, you’re going to train one of the recent graduates from one of the great universities across our land. Train Americans. Stop bringing in people to take our jobs,” US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said.
Trump’s threat to crack down on H-1B visas has become a major flashpoint with the tech industry, which contributed millions of dollars to his presidential campaign.
Critics of the program, including many US technology workers, argue that it allows firms to suppress wages and sideline Americans who could do the jobs. Supporters, including Tesla CEO and former Trump ally Elon Musk, say it brings in highly skilled workers essential to filling talent gaps and keeping firms competitive. Musk, himself a naturalised US citizen born in South Africa, has held an H-1B visa.
Some employers have exploited the program to hold down wages, disadvantaging US workers, according to the executive order Trump signed on Friday.
The number of foreign science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workers in the US more than doubled between 2000 and 2019 to nearly 2.5 million, even as overall STEM employment only increased 44.5% during that time, it said.
Move could deter global talent
Adding new fees “creates disincentive to attract the world’s smartest talent to the US,” said Deedy Das, partner at venture capital firm Menlo Ventures, on X. “If the US ceases to attract the best talent, it drastically reduces its ability to innovate and grow the economy.”
The move could add millions of dollars in costs for companies, which could hit smaller tech firms and start-ups particularly hard.
Reuters was not immediately able to establish how the fee would be administered. Lutnick said the visa would cost $100,000 a year for each of the three years of its duration but that the details were “still being considered.”
Some analysts suggested the fee may force companies to move some high-value work overseas, hampering America’s position in the high-stakes artificial intelligence race with China.
“In the short term, Washington may collect a windfall; in the long term, the US risks taxing away its innovation edge, trading dynamism for short-sighted protectionism,” said eMarketer analyst Jeremy Goldman.
India accounts for most H-1B visas
India was the largest beneficiary of H-1B visas last year, accounting for 71% of approved beneficiaries, while China was a distant second at 11.7%, according to government data.
In the first half of 2025, Amazon.com and its cloud-computing unit, AWS, had received approval for more than 12,000 H-1B visas, while Microsoft and Meta Platforms had over 5,000 H-1B visa approvals each.
Lutnick said on Friday that “all the big companies are on board” with $100,000 a year for H-1B visas.
“We’ve spoken to them,” he said.
Many large US tech, banking and consulting companies declined to comment or did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Indian embassy in Washington and the Chinese Consulate General in New York also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions, an IT services company that relies extensively on H-1B visa holders, closed down nearly 5%. US-listed shares of Indian tech firms Infosys and Wipro closed between 2% and 5% lower.
Immigration crackdown
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director of the American Immigration Council, questioned the legality of the new fees. “Congress has only authorised the government to set fees to recover the cost of adjudicating an application,” he said on Bluesky.
The H-1B program offers 65,000 visas annually to employers bringing in temporary foreign workers in specialised fields, with another 20,000 visas for workers with advanced degrees.
Under the current system, entering the lottery for the visa requires a small fee and, if approved, subsequent fees could amount to several thousand dollars.
Nearly all the visa fees have to be paid by the employers. The H-1B visas are approved for a period of three to six years.
Trump also signed an executive order on Friday to create a “gold card” for individuals who can afford to pay $1 million for US permanent residency.
- Cyberattack disrupts flights at multiple European airports.
- Airports warn of delays, cancellations after cyberattack.
- Frankfurt and Zurich airports confirm no disruption.
BRUSSELS: A cyberattack at a service provider for check-in and boarding systems has disrupted operations at several major European airports, including London’s Heathrow, Brussels and Berlin, causing flight delays and cancellations on Saturday.
Collins Aerospace, which provides check-in and boarding systems for several airlines across multiple airports globally, is experiencing a technical issue that may cause delays for departing passengers, London’s Heathrow Airport said on Saturday, having warned of delays.
RTX, Collins Aerospace’s parent, was not immediately available for comment outside of US business hours.
The attack has rendered automated systems inoperable, allowing only manual check-in and boarding procedures, Brussels Airport said on its website.
“This has a large impact on the flight schedule and will unfortunately cause delays and cancellations of flights…The service provider is actively working on the issue and trying to resolve the problem as quickly as possible.”
Passengers with a flight scheduled for Saturday were advised by the affected airports to confirm their travel with airlines before heading to the airport.
“Due to a technical issue at a system provider operating across Europe, there are longer waiting times at check-in. We are working on a quick solution,” Berlin Airport said in a banner on its website.
Frankfurt Airport, Germany’s largest, was not affected, a spokesperson said. An official from the operations control centre at Zurich Airport also said it had not been impacted.
A viral audio clip has triggered outrage in India after a woman identified as telecaller Anu Radha Verma was heard hurling curse words and derogatory language at a “debt-ridden” Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel during a dispute over loan repayment.
According to Indian media, Verma allegedly insulted the officer’s education and profession, telling him he was ‘ignorant” and would not have been “sent to the border if you were educated”.
She also accused him of “usurping others’ money”, adding: “That is why your children are born disabled.”
At one point, she dismissed his attempt to respond, saying: “What lesson will you teach me? My family is also linked to the army. You are living on debt and you will teach me?”
After the audio circulated widely on social media, speculation arose that Verma was connected to a bank.
The bank in question, however, issued a clarification, denying she was an employee, though many questioned how she might have obtained sensitive loan data if not linked to the institution.
Amid mounting criticism and a worsening public perception of the Indian armed forces, another audio clip of Verma, but this time offering an apology to the CRPF personnel, also surfaced online.
The woman was heard requesting to “stop harassing” her with audio or video calls and offensive messages to stop.
Sky watchers, take note: a partial solar eclipse will cross skies overnight on 21-22 September, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has announced.
However, the rare celestial event won’t be visible in the United States — but those in Australia, Antarctica, and across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans will get front-row seats.
Pakistan, however, will miss out. The Climate Data Processing Centre of the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) says the eclipse will begin at 10:30pm (PST) on 21 September, reach its peak at 12:42am, and wrap up by 2:54am — but the spectacle will remain invisible from anywhere in the country.
According to USA Today, Nasa explains that a partial solar eclipse happens when the Moon slides between the Sun and Earth without perfect alignment, leaving a glowing crescent of the Sun in view.
This will be the second big sky event this month — the first was a total lunar eclipse on September 7-8. And there’s more: the September equinox follows just a day later, on September 22, when day and night are nearly equal worldwide.
Looking ahead, Nasa says the next total solar eclipse visible in parts of North America will happen on August 12, 2026, crossing Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia and a small corner of Portugal.
A partial eclipse on that date will be visible across North America, Europe, Africa, the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific Oceans. Plus, there’s an annular eclipse coming on February 17, 2026, visible in parts of Antarctica, with a partial eclipse across Africa, South America, and several oceans.
Nasa has one important reminder: never look directly at the Sun without proper eclipse glasses or filters. “Viewing any part of the bright Sun through a camera lens, binoculars, or a telescope without a special-purpose solar filter… will instantly cause severe eye injury,” the agency warns.
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