United States President Donald Trump has signed a proclamation requiring a $100,000 fee per year for companies seeking to sponsor H-1B worker visas.
Trump signed the order on Friday, while also introducing a separate “gold card” visa for individuals who can afford to pay $1m for US permanent residency.
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“The main thing is, we’re going to have great people coming in, and they’re going to be paying,” he told reporters at the White House.
H-1B visas allow companies to sponsor foreign workers with specialised skills – such as scientists, engineers, and computer programmers – to work in the US, initially for three years, but extendable to six years.
Administration officials said the change to the H-1B programme would ensure that companies would only sponsor workers with the most rarefied skill sets.
“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,” US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said.
However, such a prohibitive fee will likely vastly transform the H-1B system, which was created in 1990 and awards 85,000 visas per year on a lottery system.
The programme has come under increased scrutiny from the Trump administration amid a wider crackdown on immigration, which the US president has tied to boosting domestic labour.
As part of that campaign, the Trump administration has also sought to introduce more restrictive policies on international students studying in the US, including requiring access to social media accounts and a ban on foreign travellers from several countries.
‘Taxing away innovation edge’
The Trump administration has previously considered changing the H-1B visa rules to favour higher-paying employers, essentially doing away with the lottery system.
Supporters of the H-1B programme say it brings the best and brightest to work in the US, creating an edge against foreign competitors. Critics h