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www.desitalk.com – that’s all you need to know 8 SPECIAL REPORT September 26, 2025 Trump Unveils $100K Yearly Fee On H-1B Visas In Clampdown On Legal Immigration P resident Donald Trump on Friday announced an annual $100,000 fee on successful applicants for a high-skilled worker visa program that is widely used in Silicon Valley, constraining a key path to legal immigration. The president also signed an executive order that would allow wealthy foreigners to pay $1 million for a ‘Gold Card’ for U.S. residency and companies to pay $2 million for a ‘Corporate Gold Card’ that would permit them to sponsor one or more employees. “The main thing is we’re going to have great people coming in and they’re going to be paying,” Trump said. “We’re going to take that money and we’re going to be reducing taxes and we’re going to be reducing debt.” Both moves likely will face legal challenges. If upheld, however, they would dramatically tighten legal immigra- tion systems while opening access to the U.S. for wealthy foreigners. That would deliver a win to outspoken members of Trump’s nationalist base who have argued for years that the H1-B program takes jobs away from American workers. Left-leaning critics also have faulted the program, which they say can be used to exploit work- ers from overseas. The announcement is one of the steps that Trump has taken to restrict legal immigration to the United States in addition to his moves to deport those in the country illegally. The $100,000 payment for an H-1B visa could be made each year for six years, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in an Oval Office ceremony unveiling the actions. Roughly half a million people in the U.S. work through H-1B visas, and most renew their status every three years. A significant number apply for green cards through their employer to receive legal permanent resi- dency but confront significant delays due to backlogs in processing. “The company needs to decide … is the person valu- able enough to have a $100,000-a-year payment to the government, or they should head home, and they should go hire an American,” Lutnick told reporters. “Stop the nonsense of letting people just come into this country on visas that were given away for free. The president is crystal clear: valuable people only for America.” The country’s largest tech companies were notably silent about the policy on Friday night, in a dramatic departure from their frequent criticisms of Trump’s im- migration policies during the first administration. If upheld, the restrictions on H-1B visas could upend the way Silicon Valley has operated since its found- ing. Many of the country’s most famous entrepreneurs, including Elon Musk, once held H-1B visas, and many tech founders attribute their companies’ success in part to the United States’s ability to attract the world’s best computer scientists and engineers. Some executives and spokespeople said they were still reviewing the implications of the policy. But the industry is remaining quiet after executives have largely sup- ported Trump in his second presidency – working with Trump on major investment announcements or present- ing him with lavish gifts. Applicants for Trump’s gold card would need to pay a processing fee and undergo Department of Homeland Security vetting, according to a government website beckoning users to “Unlock life in America.” If approved, gold card applicants would have to “make a gift of $1 million, which has been determined to provide sufficient evidence that the individual will substantially benefit the United States,” the website said. Separately, a platinum card offering marked “coming soon” on the website would cost $5 million and allow individual applicants to reside in the United States for up to 270 days per year without being taxed on non-U. S. income. That program will have a wait list and must be approved by Congress, Lutnick told reporters. By Cat Zakrzewski, Lauren Kaori Gurley, David Nakamura PHOTO:DEMETRIUS FREEMAN/THEWASHINGTON POST A replica “Trump Gold Card” on display Friday in the Oval Office. US New H-1B Visa Fee Will Not Apply To Existing Holders, White House Says A new $100,000 fee for H-1B visas in the United States that goes into effect on Sunday will be levied per petition and will not be applied to existing visa holders re-entering the country, the White House said on Saturday. “This is NOT an annual fee. It’s a one-time fee that applies only to the petition,”White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X on Saturday. A petition is a request by a company to bring a skilled worker from another country into the United States. FEE ONLY FOR NEW H-1B VISAS Leavitt said that current H-1B visa holders who are currently outside of the country will not be charged $100,000 to re-enter the United States. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Friday said the fee would be paid annually but added that details were “still being considered.” TheWhite House clarifica- tion on Saturday represented a walkback from Lutnick’s statement. Some companies including Microsoft, JPMorgan, and Amazon had responded to the Friday announcement by advising employees holding H-1B visas to remain in the United States, according to internal emails reviewed by Reuters. A Goldman Sachs internal memo seen by Reuters on Saturday urged employees with such visas to exercise caution on international travel. Leavitt said on X that H-1B visa holders can leave and re-enter the country as they normally would and that the new fee would only apply in the next H-1B lottery round and not to current visa holders or renewals. TheWhite House said the fee was being imposed to level the playing field for American workers which it said are being “replaced with lower-paid foreign labor.” The proclamation imposing the new fee on H-1B visa applications, which was signed by President Donald Trump on Friday, could disrupt the global operations of Indian technology services companies that deploy skilled professionals to the United States, Indian IT industry body Nasscom said early on Saturday. In a fact sheet distributed on Saturday, theWhite House said it would allow an H-1B visa application without the $100,000 fee on a case-by-case basis “if in the national interest.” The fact sheet said that the share of IT workers with H-1B visas had risen from 32% in FY 2003 to over 65% in recent years. Trump’s proclamation requires the Departments of Labor and Homeland Security to issue joint guidance for verification, enforcement, audits, and penalties, and di- rects the Labor Secretary to start a rulemaking process to “revise the prevailing wage levels for the H-1B program” and “to prioritize high-skilled, high-paid H-1B workers.” TECH WORKER PANIC Friday’s announcement sparked concerns among employees across swaths of corporate America. On the popular Chinese social media app Rednote, many H-1B holders shared stories of rushing back to the U.S. — some just hours after landing abroad, as they feared being subject to the new $100,000 fee. TheWhite House said Trump’s move was designed to address threats to U.S. national security. “President Trump is imposing higher costs on compa- nies seeking to use the H-1B program in order to address the abuse of the program, stop the undercutting of wages, and protect our national security,” it said. -Reuters By Jeff Mason PHOTO:REUTERS Reuters videograb of President Trump signing new regulations for skilled worker visas. - Continued On Page 9