Trump Says U.S. Will Institute $100,000 Fee for H-1B Visas

Administration officials said the charge would help American workers. President Trump also announced the terms of a new “gold card” program.

President Trump on Friday said that the federal government would begin adding a $100,000-a-year fee for visas given to skilled foreign workers, a significant overhaul of how the United States distributes what are known as H-1B visas.

He also signed an executive order creating an expedited visa program he called the “gold card,” an idea he previewed in February. The card will cost $1 million, or $2 million if a corporation is sponsoring someone seeking it, White House officials said.

The moves were the latest efforts by the Trump administration in a wide-ranging crackdown on all forms of immigration.

The H-1B fee is likely to face legal challenges. But if it survives, companies that hire skilled international workers would have to pay $100,000 each year for any employee working on the visa, for up to six years. The fee applies only to new applicants, a White House official said.

“Either the person is very valuable to the company and America, or they’re going to depart, and the company is going to hire an American,” Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, said at the signing in the Oval Office on Friday. “And that’s the point of immigration: Hire Americans and make sure the people coming in are the top, top people.”

He added: “Stop the nonsense of letting people just come into this country on these visas that were given away for free.”

Mr. Trump framed the “gold card” program as a way for the government to raise billions of dollars, and Mr. Lutnick said the program would likely replace all other green card visa programs.

“You can prove exceptional value to the United States of America by contributing a million dollars to the United States of America,” he said on a call with reporters after the signing of the proclamation.

Many industries rely on the H-1B visas to fill jobs, including technology and finance. Hospitals and universities also make ample use of them. The new fee could substantially affect their ability to fill jobs, changing the nature of the country’s work force.

As of late June, Amazon had over 10,000 workers using H-1B visas, according to government data — by far the most of any company. Other top beneficiaries included Microsoft, Meta, Apple, Google, JPMorgan Chase, Walmart and Deloitte.

Administration officials downplayed concerns about the $100,000 fee, saying it would help American workers’ wages by discouraging companies from using the visas to bring in lower-wage international workers. Such an expense would also limit the number of applicants and provide more certainty for companies that had relied on a lottery, the officials added.

Historically, 85,000 new visas have been provided annually to hire so-called high-skilled foreign workers at companies through that lottery process. If people are selected through the lottery, they are required to pay a fee for a vetting process. The new $100,000 fee is being added to those costs, officials said.

Doug Rand, a former senior official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., questioned the legality of the policy. “Tying an entry ban to a fee, let alone a $100,000 fee, isn’t likely to survive five seconds in court,” he said.

Tom Jawetz, a former senior attorney at the Department of Homeland Security under Mr. Biden, also said the order would come under legal scrutiny. “This is how the mob operates when it demands protection money,” he said. “It’s not how the laws of a country are administered.”

The new fee partly resolves a debate among some conservatives that began last winter. Immigration hard-liners have argued that the foreign visa worker program has hurt the United States, because companies have brought in foreign workers at lower wages, displacing Americans. Business leaders, particularly in the technology sector, have said that the visa program has helped to keep American companies competitive.

The debate has pitted some of Mr. Trump’s most loyal backers against some of his biggest financial boosters. With Friday’s proclamation, the president indicated that, for now, he was siding with those looking to make the visa program more difficult to use.

In the call with reporters, Mr. Lutnick claimed that companies were “very happy” about the fee, “because they would like a process that is known, that is clear and that is swift.”

When a company trains a worker, “you’re going to train one of the recent graduates from one of the great universities across our land, train Americans,” he added. “Stop bringing in people to take our jobs. That’s the policy here.”

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