Why Trump Wants H-1B Visas to Cost Employers More Than $100,000

The Trump administration has published a proposed regulation that would require employers to pay a one-off fee of more than $100,000 for any new H-1B skilled worker visa application — apparently regardless of whether the application succeeds.

The payment would sit on top of existing fees, which range from roughly $2,000 to $5,000.

The unusual coalition against the programme

H-1B has been championed by technology executives, Elon Musk among them, as essential to drawing global talent to Silicon Valley. Nearly two years after Musk threatened his political rivals with all-out war over skilled worker visas, the fight has not resolved.

What makes the programme politically unusual is that its critics come from both directions. The argument from the left and the right converges on the same claim: that H-1B is used less to import scarce expertise than to replace skilled US-born workers with cheaper labour that is easier to control, because a visa holder's right to remain is tied to their employer.

What the fee would actually do

It is not the first attempt. Last September the president issued a proclamation imposing a temporary fee along similar lines.

A six-figure charge does not ban anything. It sorts. A large technology company can absorb $100,000 for a senior engineer it genuinely cannot hire domestically; a hospital system recruiting physicians, a university, or a mid-size firm using the programme for routine roles cannot.

Whether that sorting produces the intended result depends on which employers were actually driving the volume — and that is the empirical question the proposal does not answer.