For the hundreds of thousands of skilled professionals who apply for the H-1B visa each year, a new and daunting reality has set in. President Donald Trump’s proclamation of a $100,000 annual fee per visa has transformed the landscape, turning the dream of working in America into a prohibitively expensive proposition for their potential employers.
The policy shift is drastic. Previously, employers faced costs of several thousand dollars for a visa that would last three to six years. Now, they must consider an annual six-figure cost for the same employee. This financial burden will likely cause many companies to withdraw job offers or avoid sponsoring foreign talent altogether, leaving many aspiring applicants in limbo.
The administration justifies this by arguing it will reserve the H-1B program for the absolute “top, top people,” as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick put it. The logic is that if a company is willing to pay $100,000 a year for a foreign worker, that person must be extraordinarily valuable. However, this ignores the many highly skilled but not astronomically paid roles in sectors like education and healthcare that also use the program.
The human cost of this policy could be significant. It creates immense uncertainty for individuals who have planned their careers and lives around the possibility of working in the U.S. Many are highly educated graduates from American universities who were hoping to contribute their skills to the U.S. economy, a path once encouraged but now financially obstructed.
Furthermore, the legal questions surrounding the fee add another layer of anxiety. While immigration experts believe the policy will be struck down in court, the immediate effect is a freeze on hiring and a cloud of doubt over the entire H-1B system. For applicants, the future is no longer a matter of qualification and luck in the lottery, but a $100,000 question.
