New Delhi : Former Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Saturday said US President Donald Trump’s order imposing a USD 100,000 annual fee on H-1B visas was a loss for the US and a gain for India. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said companies will now be required to pay $100,000 annually for each visa. “A hundred thousand dollars a year for H-1B visas, and all of the big companies are on board. We’ve spoken to them,” Lutnick said.
He added that the policy aims to prioritise US graduates. “If you’re going to train somebody, train one of the recent graduates from one of our great universities. Train Americans. Stop bringing in people to take our jobs.” Representatives for the biggest tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta, did not immediately respond to messages for comment on Friday.
The proclamation represents one of the most sweeping changes to the program for highly skilled foreign workers since its creation in 1990. H-1B applicants pay a modest fee to enter the lottery and, if selected, additional charges that can total several thousand dollars, depending on the case. In most instances, employers cover these visa costs.
The H-1B system, widely used by US technology companies to fill roles in science, engineering and math, has long been criticised by Trump and his allies as a tool for undercutting American wages. India accounted for 71 per cent of all approved H-1B visa recipients, while China made up 11.7 per cent. H-1B visas are typically granted for periods between three and six years.
Amazon received the most, with over 10,000 approvals, followed by Tata Consultancy, Microsoft, Apple and Google. California hosts the largest concentration of H-1B workers, according to USCIS. Some opponents of the H-1B system, especially within the American tech workforce, maintain that companies employ visa recipients to dampen wage growth, bypassing US jobseekers who meet job requirements. This ongoing disagreement continues to split views among parties involved in both the tech sector and the labour market.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, questioned whether the new H-1B fees are even legal. “Congress has only authorised the government to set fees to recover the cost of adjudicating an application,” he wrote on Bluesky. The proposal marks the Trump administration’s latest attempt to restrict or raise revenue from legal immigration.
Read Also : Delhi Schools Thrown into Chaos by Fresh Wave of Bomb Hoaxes Amid Rising Security Fears