Trump signs proclamation imposing $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications

President Trump signed a proclamation on Friday imposing a $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications.

Companies use H-1B visas to sponsor foreign workers with special skills in specific industries.

“The main thing is, we’re going to have great people coming in, and they’re going to be paying,” Trump said at the White House.

According to the proclamation, "pursuant to sections 212(f) and 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1182(f) and 1185(a), the entry into the United States of aliens as nonimmigrants to perform services in a specialty occupation under section 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b), is restricted, except for those aliens whose petitions are accompanied or supplemented by a payment of $100,000 -- subject to the exceptions set forth in subsection (c) of this section."

Without an extension, the restriction will be lifted 12 months after the effective date of the proclamation, which is September 21, 2025. 

In the proclamation, the White House said the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program was "created to bring temporary workers into the United States to perform additive, high-skilled functions, but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor."