Donald Trump imposes $100K H-1B visa fee from Sept 21

As US President Donald Trump on Friday signed and executive order to impose a $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications, the industry leaders and US lawmakers criticised the move as ‘reckless’ and noted that it will have a ‘huge negative’ on the IT industry.

Trump on Friday signed the proclamation ‘Restriction on entry of certain nonimmigrant workers’ that restricts the entry into the US of those workers whose H1B petitions are not accompanied or supplemented by a payment of USD 100,000.

“The H-1B nonimmigrant visa programme was created to bring



temporary workers into the United States to perform additive, high-skilled functions, but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labour,” Trump said in the proclamation.

“The abuse of the H-1B programme is also a national security threat. Domestic law enforcement agencies have identified and investigated H-1B-reliant outsourcing companies for engaging in visa fraud, conspiracy to launder money... and other illicit activities to encourage foreign workers to come to the United States,” he said in the proclamation.