• 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.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told AFP on Friday that the world should not be “intimidated” by Israel or its gradual annexation of the occupied West Bank.

Speaking at UN headquarters in New York, Guterres also called for stronger climate action, warning that efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels are at risk of “collapsing.”

His remarks came ahead of the UN’s high-level week, during which 10 countries are expected to recognize a Palestinian state, despite strong Israeli objections.

The annual gathering of over 140 heads of state and government, which temporarily paralyzes parts of Manhattan, will likely focus on the future of the Palestinians and the war in Gaza.

Israel has reportedly threatened to annex parts of the West Bank if Western nations move forward with the recognition plan.

But Guterres stressed, “We should not feel intimidated by the risk of retaliation,” adding that international pressure could help prevent further annexation.

Describing the situation in Gaza, he said, “What we are witnessing is horrendous. It is the worst level of death and destruction I have seen in my time as Secretary-General, probably in my life.

The suffering of the Palestinian people cannot be described—famine, lack of effective health care, and inadequate shelter in overcrowded areas.”

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for annexing parts of the West Bank to “bury the idea of a Palestinian state,” after several countries supported France’s push for recognition.

Meanwhile, Israel’s ally, the United States, has refrained from criticizing either the Gaza conflict or Israel’s annexation plans and has criticized its allies for recognizing a Palestinian state.

Climate goals face collapse

Also on the agenda will be efforts to combat climate change which Guterres warned are floundering.

Guterres said efforts to cap climate warming at 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels were in trouble.

The climate goals for 2035 of the countries that signed the Paris Agreement, also known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), were initially expected to be submitted several months ago.

However, uncertainties related to geopolitical tensions and trade rivalries have slowed the process.

“We are on the verge of this objective collapsing,” he told AFP.

“We absolutely need countries to come… with climate action plans that are fully aligned with 1.5 degrees (Celsius), that cover the whole of their economies and the whole of their greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.

“It is essential that we have a drastic reduction of emissions in the next few years if you want to keep the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit alive.”

Less than two months before COP30 climate meeting in Brazil, dozens of countries have been slow to announce their plans particularly China and the European Union, powers considered pivotal for the future of climate diplomacy.

Efforts to combat the impact of man-made global warming have taken a backseat to myriad crises in recent years that have included the coronavirus pandemic and several wars, with Guterres seeking to reignite the issue.

The UN hopes that the climate summit co-chaired Wednesday in New York by Guterres and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will be an opportunity to breathe life into efforts ahead of COP30.

Guterres said he was concerned that Nationally Determined Contributions, or national climate action plans, may not ultimately support the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

“It’s not a matter to panic. It’s a matter to be determined, to put all pressure for countries.”

Containing global warming to1.5C compared to the pre-industrial era 1850-1900 is the most ambitious goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

But many scientists agree that this threshold will most likely be reached before the end of this decade, as the planet continues to burn more and more oil, gas, and coal.

The climate is already on average 1.4C warmer today, according to current estimates from the European observatory Copernicus.

Four US Army special operations soldiers were presumed killed when their Black Hawk helicopter crashed this week during a routine training exercise in a remote area of Washington state near Joint Base Lewis-McChord, the Army said on Friday.

The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk went down at about 9pm PDT on Wednesday in rugged terrain near the base, located about 15 miles southeast of Tacoma, Washington, according to Jacqui Hill, spokesperson for the US Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

No survivors were found among the four personnel who were aboard the aircraft, all members of the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, 4th Battalion, assigned to Lewis-McChord, she said.

Dubbed “Night Stalkers,” this airborne unit is known for its expertise in conducting operations under the cover of darkness and for pioneering the Army’s nighttime flying tactics.

“They were elite warriors who embodied our highest values of the Army and the Army Special Operations, and their sacrifice will never be forgotten,” Lieutenant General Jonathan Braga said of the four fallen soldiers in a statement.

Hill said efforts to reach the accident site were complicated by the remote location, fire from the crash and thick vegetation, and that recovery operations were continuing on Friday.