Financial Associated Press, September 21 (Editor Niu Zhanlin)Trump isThe government said on Friday it would require companies to pay $100,000 a year for each H-1B work visa, a move that prompted some large tech companies to urgently alert employees holding the type of visa to stay in the U.S. or return quickly.

Trump said in the Oval Office of the White House that day, ¡°We want the top talent, this initiative can screw out the bullshit.¡±

In another order, Trump also announced the establishment of a "gold card" immigration channel. He said that the policy will allow visa approval to be accelerated by paying high fees: individuals can get a visa quickly by paying $1 million, while enterprises can speed up the processing by paying $2 million for their foreign employees.

The new rules will raise the cost of enterprises paying for H-1B applicants to $100,000 a year, ensuring that the introduced foreign workers are ¡°truly highly skilled and irreplaceable.¡±

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an announcement on Monday to raise the cost of companies paying for H-1B visa applicants to $100,000.

And this policy change may deal a heavy blow to the technology industry, which relies heavily on highly skilled talents from India and China. Since taking office in January this year, Trump has launched a wide-ranging immigration crackdown, including measures to restrict some legal immigrants. The reshaping of the H-1B visa program is the most striking move by his administration to date in the reform of temporary work visas.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Lutnick said: "If you want to train someone, then train those young Americans who graduated from our colleges and universities. Train Americans, and stop bringing foreigners to take our jobs."

Lutnik claims that each visa is three-year, paying $100,000 a year, but details are ¡°still under discussion.¡±

Trump¡¯s correctional threat to the H-1B visa has become a major focus of conflict between it and the tech industry. It¡¯s worth noting that the tech industry has contributed significant amounts of money in its presidential campaign.

According to the news, giants such as Microsoft, JPMorgan and Amazon have all sent notifications to their signature employees overnight about staying or returning to the United States.

Critics of the H-1B visa scheme, including a large number of U.S. tech workers, say that the scheme puts corporations under pressure on their salaries and squeezes the domestic labor market. Supporters say that the scheme¡¯s introduction of highly skilled personnel is crucial to fill the talent gap and maintain the competitiveness of the company. Tesla CEO Musk has also openly insisted that he himself has immigrated to the U.S. through the H-1B visa and eventually naturalized.

The executive order, signed by Trump on the same day, said some employers actually used the project to squeeze wages to harm the interests of American workers.

The document notes that between 2000 and 2019, the number of foreign tech practitioners in the U.S. more than doubled to 2.5 million, while domestic jobs increased only 44.5% in the same period.

It will weaken U.S. competitiveness.

Deedy Das, a partner at Menlo Ventures, said on the social platform X: ¡°Additional fees will undermine America¡¯s ability to attract the world¡¯s top talent and severely limit its innovation and economic growth potential if the United States loses its attractiveness to the best talent.¡±

This initiative could dramatically increase business costs, especially for SMEs and start-ups.

Under the current system, employers only need to pay a few thousand dollars to draw an H-1B for foreign employees and renew it for three years. According to the executive order signed on Friday, in the future, each signee may have to pay a "skill premium fee" of $100,000 every year, totaling $300,000 for three years.

Some analysts have warned that the new policy could force companies to outsource some of their high-value jobs overseas, undermining the U.S. leadership in technology.

Jeremy Goldman, an analyst at eMarketer, said: "In the short term, the U.S. government may be able to obtain a fiscal revenue; but in the long run, the U.S. will lose its innovation advantage due to excessive protectionism and exchange economic vitality for short-sighted taxation."

The United States issues 65,000 H-1B visas every year, and another 20,000 quotas are reserved exclusively for applicants with American graduate degrees. The data shows that India is the biggest beneficiary of H-1B visas. Last year, the proportion of visas approved was as high as 71%, while China ranked second, accounting for 11.7%.

The data show that India is the largest beneficiary of H-1B visas, with 71% of visas approved last year.

In the first half of 2025 alone, Amazon and its cloud computing department AWS have approved more than 12,000 H-1B visas, while Microsoft and Meta have approved more than 5,000 respectively.

Lutnik said, ¡°All big companies have accepted a fee standard of $100,000 a year, and we¡¯ve talked to them.¡±

In addition, the "Golden Card" project announced at the same time also aims to reshape the immigration framework of foreign workers in the United States, and tends to attract entrepreneurs and high-income groups. Lutnick stressed that the United States will only accept the top and most outstanding talents.

Extended reading

U.S. work visa fees climbed to $100,000, signature holders embarrassed: expatriates robbed tickets back to the U.S.

On September 19th, local time, US President Trump signed an executive order to drastically reform the H-1B work visa program, requiring applicants to pay an annual fee of $100,000, otherwise they will not be allowed to enter the country.

It is that the H-1B visa allows U.S. companies to hire foreign professional technicians to fill the vacancies of professional positions that are difficult to find suitable talents in the country, mainly used by U.S. technology companies to absorb high-skilled technology immigrants.

The executive order showed that the new regulation would come into effect at 00:01 AM on September 21st, which means that H1-B visa applicants and holders had only about 24 hours of window time to respond to the changes. The regulation immediately sparked panic among H-1B holders. On September 20, Chinese U.S. worker Alex told Red Star news reporters that he was not flying to Shanghai on September 19, and that the plan was to stay in the country for a week, but now had to rush to buy tickets to return to the U.S. that night.

U.S. President Donald Trump signs executive decree to substantially reform H-1B work visa program

The $100,000 "entry fee" takes effect in about 24 hours

Someone robbed tickets back to the U.S. overnight: flight tickets jumped 4.5 times for half an hour

The executive orderly requires U.S. companies to guarantee H-1B work visa applications for foreign employees, ¡°to pay the U.S. government a $100,000 application fee.¡±

The biggest impact on visa holders is that according to the original text of the presidential decree issued by the White House, if the foreigner already holds an H-1B work visa but is abroad, the American employer must pay $100,000 before entering the United States.

On September 20, the Chinese H-1B owner Alex told Red Star reporter that he "just returned home yesterday (the plan) to the United States next Saturday, and I don't know what happened." "Go straight to the airport immediately, and then consider other things when you get back." "Go back quickly"Someone worriedly asked, ¡°Will you not be able to fly back in the evening?¡±

Alex said that after he saw the news, he ¡°buyed a ticket for Shanghai Flight Los Angeles at once¡±. According to him, when he bought the ticket, the ticket price was only 3,800 yuan, and after half an hour it rose to 17,000 yuan. In just 30 minutes, the price of the ticket rose 4.5 times. Red Star reporter query ticket sales platform found that the ticket for the ¡°Shanghai-Los Angeles¡± direct flight on the evening of 20 was sold empty, only the total flight duration of more than 24 hours.

Tickets for the Shanghai-Los Angeles direct flight were sold out.

Mr. Wei, another Chinese H-1B holder in the United States, also confirmed to Red Star reporters that there was panic. He said the news was seen on social media on the afternoon of 19 local time (before the executive order was signed) and that his U.S. owner was also aware of it and informed him from the news.

"Lawyers also reminded us in the group," Mr. Wei said. "[Lawyers] strongly recommend that all visa holders outside the United States return to the United States before Monday."

Families feel trapped in the United States:

Can't leave the country, now friends who go abroad to visit relatives may lose their jobs

If Alex is "flying to the United States before the executive order takes effect", then Mr. Wei represents the majority "trapped in the United States". Mr. Wei told the Red Star News reporter: ¡°We¡¯ve all exploded, and tomorrow every one of our friends was going to leave the United States, and now they¡¯ve been forced to cancel the trip.¡±

He described this state as: "I feel really trapped in America."

Mr. Wei explained his understanding of policies in the American Chinese circle: ¡°After looking at the policy content, we are currently analyzing the possibility of paying $100,000 as long as we leave and enter, otherwise we will not be able to enter ... so we can only choose to stay in the United States for the visa period.¡±

He worried that this could lead to many immediate unemployment: ¡°H-1B holders who have a lot of family visits abroad may not be able to return to the U.S. so they are likely to lose their jobs.¡±

Trump: Technology companies would be happy to pay for this money

Chinese workers in the US: the company doesn't pay, I won't stay in the United States

At present, the basic application fee for H-1B is about $1,000, and the new regulations directly increase the fee to 100 times.

For the U.S. tech industry, which relies on Indian and Chinese immigrant tech talents, this will suddenly increase the cost of hiring foreign workers, and Silicon Valley tech companies may turn to hiring more local U.S. labor.

According to reports, U.S. Commerce Secretary Lutnick said: "The Trump administration has communicated with American technology companies about this matter, and 'all big companies have agreed'."

US President Trump seems full of confidence about whether technology companies will be "willing" to pay this huge sum of money. When asked, he said: ¡°I think they will be very happy.¡±

Trump added: "We're going to be able to keep those very productive people in our country, and in a lot of cases, those companies are going to pay big sums of money for it, and they're very happy about it."

Regarding whether enterprises will bear this high cost, Mr. Wei guessed: "I guess most companies won't come up with this money. It's too much." Alex also holds a similar view. When asked how the $100,000 cost would be split, he said frankly: ¡°I don¡¯t know what this money will be like in the future, many people can¡¯t afford the $100,000 if I want to go out myself, I won¡¯t stay in the United States.

Faced with the current trouble, Mr. Wei mentioned the possibility of a legal path, and only hoped there would be a shift next week," he said, "My friends are discussing the development of the return."

He added: "There are also many friends who say that there is likely to be a lawsuit next week, and I hope the court can temporarily freeze the executive order."