U.S. President Donald Trump recently signed an announcement to raise the cost of enterprises paying for H-1B visa applicants from thousands of dollars to $100,000 a year, a new rule that comes into effect at 0:01, the 21st morning, Beijing time at 12:01 p.m. On the 20th, local time, several major U.S. technology companies and several universities urgently sent emails warning H-1B visa holders to temporarily not leave.

On the 20th, local time, several major U.S. technology companies including Microsoft, Amazon and Apple urgently emailed their internal employees to recommend that employees with H-1B visas stay in the U.S. and suspend any plans to leave the country to prevent their return after the policy came into effect. Google's parent company letter in an email reminded that employees who hold a valid H-1B visa and are currently outside the U.S. should return and enter the U.S. before September 21.

In the face of collective panic in the corporate world, the White House clarified on social media that the new policy only applies to future new visa applicants and does not involve renewal of visas for existing visa holders, nor even applicants who have already participated in the 2025 lottery.At the same time, the White House emphasized $100,000 as a one-time fee, not an annual fee.

New U.S. Visa Rules or Increased Human Costs and Talent Loss for Technology Companies

H-1B visa program is the main way to introduce highly skilled talents in the United States, and it is aimed at professionals in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the maximum number of new H-1B visas issued every year is 85,000. Tech giants such as Amazon, Google, Tesla, Microsoft and Meta have relied on H-1B visa programs to hire foreign employees, including software development engineers. According to CNBC, in the first three quarters of fiscal year 2025, that is, as of June 30 this year, Amazon alone had more than 14,000 H-1B visas approved, and Microsoft and Meta each had more than 5,000 approvals.

According to some analysts, the U.S. government has significantly increased the annual fee for H-1B visas, which could lead to a sharp rise in human costs for large tech companies.In addition, for small tech companies and startups, the human costs of $100,000 per year will be unbearable, not only preventing them from recruiting overseas talent, but also forcing them to move some of their high-value jobs overseas.