Topline
President Donald Trump is expected to implement a new $100,000 fee for the H-1B visa program, Bloomberg reported—his latest move to increase immigration-related fees.
President Donald Trump at a press conference at Chequers in the U.K. at the conclusion of a state visit on September 18, 2025 in Aylesbury, England. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
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Key Facts
Trump is expected to sign an order as soon as Friday to try and require the payment for the visa program designed for specialty workers, typically in the technology field, an unnamed White House official told Bloomberg.
The existing program fees include $215 to register for the lottery and $780 for the petition, known as an I-29, filed by an employer sponsor, according to Bloomberg.
The White House also plans to order the Labor Secretary to reassess prevailing wages for the program, all moves designed to curtail the use of the program, which the Trump administration claims is causing American workers to be replaced with lower-paid foreign workers.
The move is expected to have an outsize impact on tech companies, such as IBM, Google and Amazon, which frequently use the program to recruit skilled workers to the U.S. on a temporary basis.
Musk Vs. Maga: H-1b Visa Debate Has Divided Republicans
Former Trump ally Elon Musk is a proponent of the visa program, having held one himself and using it to recruit foreign workers for his companies. Tesla was sued in federal court earlier this month by a software engineer and human resources specialist who accused the company of refusing to hire them because they were U.S. citizens, alleging Tesla prefers to hire workers on H-1B visas over U.S. citizens so it can pay them less, Reuters reported. In December, Musk tweeted “the reason I’m in America along with so many other critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of the H1B.” Others in Trump’s camp have taken a hardline stance against the program, arguing it disincentivizes American workers from entering the tech field. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick called the H-1B program a “scam that lets foreign workers fill American job opportunities” in August, while Vice President JD Vance has accused tech companies of laying off American workers only to apply for H-1B visas. Trump ally Steve Bannon also called the program a “total and complete scam from its top to the bottom” on his podcast in December in response to Musk’s defense of the program. Trump, who developed a relationship with many Silicon Valley giants during his second campaign and has fostered the connections during his second term, has walked a fine line in discussing the H-1B program, telling the New York Post in December he supports the program and has “used it many times” to hire workers at his properties.
What We Don’t Know
How the White House will formally implement the change. New visa fees are typically mandated by Congress or a regulatory process that requires a public-notice process.
Big Number
85,000. That’s the cap on the number of new H-1B visas permitted annually, with 20,000 reserved for employees with a master’s degree or higher.
Key Background
The Trump administration has taken several steps to raise visa fees as part of its broad immigration crackdown. Trump’s signature policy bill he signed into law this summer would raise application fees for individuals seeking temporary protected status from $50