&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Trump slaps $100,000 fee on H-1B visas, Indian tech workers to be hit hardest")
US President Donald Trump on Friday (Sep 19) signed a proclamation hiking the annual fee for H-1B visas to $100,000. The H-1B program allows American companies to bring in highly skilled foreign workers, many of them from countries like India. Now, every visa application will cost employers $100,000 a year on top of existing filing fees and salaries. "They (US-based companies) need workers, we need great workers. This proclamation ensures that America will now get good workers," said Trump as he signed the proclamation in the Oval Office on Friday.
Companies on board with the $100,000 visa fee?
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick claimed that "all the big companies are on board" with the plan and insisted that this would mean more jobs for Americans. "They have to pay the government $100,000, then they have to pay the employee. So it's just not economic. 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," he added.
Calling the 'H1-B non-immigrant visa programme' the "most abused visa system,' Trump's Trump'sWhite House Staff Secretary Will Scharf said that the step would allow only "highly skilled labourers who work in fields that Americans don't work in to come into the United States of America".
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"This will ensure that the people they're bringing in are actually very highly skilled and that they're not replaceable by American workers," he said.
Since taking office in January, Trump has implemented several measures to crack down on immigration. However, the decision to raise the H-1B visa fee is one of his most notable efforts that significantly revamps the temporary employment visa system.
