U.S. President Adds $100,000 Fee for Skilled Worker Visa Applicants

BBC

U.S. President Donald Trump.

U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that will add a $100,000 fee for applicants to the H-1B visa programme for skilled foreign workers.

The proclamation mentions "abuse" of the programme and will restrict entry unless payment is made.

Critics have long argued that H-1Bs undercut the American workforce, while supporters - including billionaire Elon Musk - argue it allows the U.S. to attract top talent from around the world.

In another order, President Trump set up a new "gold card" to fast-track visas for certain immigrants in exchange for fees starting at $1m.

Joining Trump in the Oval Office on Friday was U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

"A hundred thousand dollars a year for H1-B visas, and all of the big companies are on board," he said. "We've spoken to them.

"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."

Since 2004, the number of H-1B applications has been capped at 85,000 per year. Until now, H-1B visas have carried various administrative fees totalling around $1,500.

Data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) shows that applications for H-1B visas for the next fiscal year fell to about 359,000 - a four-year low.

The greatest beneficiary of the programme the previous fiscal year was Amazon, followed by tech giants Tata, Microsoft, Meta, Apple and Google, according to government statistics.

Early in his first term in 2017, President Trump signed an executive order that increased scrutiny of H-1B applications, seeking to improve fraud detection.

Rejections rose to an all-time high of 24% in the 2018 fiscal year, compared to between 5% and 8% under Barack Obama and then between 2% and 4% under Joe Biden.

Source: BBC



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