Donald Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee is a setback for America and an opportunity for India, according to Amitabh Kant, India’s former G20 Sherpa and ex-NITI Aayog CEO. In a strongly worded statement on social media platform X, Kant said Trump's move will choke U.S. innovation and turbocharge India’s.
By slamming the door on global talent, America pushes the next wave of labs, patents, innovation and startups to Bangalore and Hyderabad, Pune and Gurgaon, he stated. India’s finest Doctors, engineers, scientists, and innovators have an opportunity to contribute to India’s growth & progress towards Viksit Bharat, as per Kant. "America’s loss will be India’s gain."
India accounts for most H-1B visas
India remained the largest beneficiary of H-1B visas last year, accounting for 71% of approved applicants, while China was a distant second with 11.7%, according to government data.
In the first half of 2025, Amazon and its cloud unit AWS secured more than 12,000 H-1B approvals, while Microsoft and Meta each received over 5,000. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Friday that “all the big companies are on board” with paying $100,000 annually for H-1B visas. “We’ve spoken to them,” he added.
ALSO READ: Trump imposes new $100,000 fee for H-1B visas in sweeping overhaul
The visa, designed for high-skilled foreign workers in specialized roles, has been a key route for Indian engineers shaping the U.S. technology industry. Two main groups of Indians have benefited from the program: professionals employed by large U.S.-based IT firms and Indian graduates from American universities with advanced degrees who later apply for H-1B visas.
Most Indian H-1B holders work in STEM fields, with nearly 65% employed in computer-related jobs, according to a 2023 BBC report. The median annual salary for H-1B workers stands at around $118,000.
ALSO READ: Microsoft, Amazon, TCS, Apple: Tech giants that could be hit hardest by Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee
“Close to 80% of the petitions are now held by Indian workers. Part of it is because India has very much built their economy around services, software engineering – the type of skills that the U.S. economy tends to not have,” Britta Glennon, Assistant Professor of Management at the Wharton School and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, told Bloomberg.
Trump's new move explained
The moves were the latest efforts by the Trump administration in a wide-ranging crackdown on all forms of immigration.
The H-1B fee is likely to face legal challenges. But if it survives, companies that hire skilled international workers would have to pay $100,000 each year for any employee working on the visa, for up to six years. The fee applies only to new applicants, a White House official said.
ALSO READ: Microsoft asks all its foreign staff to return to US by Sunday after Trump's H1-B bombshell
"Either the person is very valuable to the company and America, or they're going to depart, and the company is going to hire an American," Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, said at the signing in the Oval Office on Friday. "And that's the point of immigration: Hire Americans and make sure the people coming in are the top, top people."
He added: "Stop the nonsense of letting people just come into this country on these visas that were given away for free."
Trump framed the "gold card" program as a way for the government to raise billions of dollars, and Lutnick said the program would likely replace all other green card visa programs.
"You can prove exceptional value to the United States America by contributing a million dollars to the United States of America," he said on a call with reporters after the signing of the proclamation.
Many industries rely on the H-1B visas to fill jobs, including technology and finance. Hospitals and universities also make ample use of them. The new fee could substantially affect their ability to fill jobs, changing the nature of the country's workforce.
As of late June, Amazon had more than 10,000 workers using H-1B visas, according to government data -- by far the most of any company. Other top beneficiaries included Microsoft, Meta, Apple, Google, JPMorgan Chase, Walmart and Deloitte.
Administration officials downplayed concerns about the $100,000 fee, saying it would help American workers' wages by discouraging companies from using the visas to bring in lower-wage international workers. Such an expense would also limit the number of applicants and provide more certainty for companies that had relied on a lottery, the officials added.
Historically, 85,000 new visas have been provided annually to hire so-called high-skilled foreign workers at companies through that lottery process. If people are selected through the lottery, they are required to pay a fee for a vetting process. The new $100,000 fee is being added to those costs, officials said.
Doug Rand, a former senior official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under President Joe Biden, questioned the legality of the policy. "Tying an entry ban to a fee, let alone a $100,000 fee, isn't likely to survive five seconds in court," he said.
Tom Jawetz, a former senior attorney at the Department of Homeland Security under Biden, also said the order would come under legal scrutiny. "This is how the mob operates when it demands protection money," he said. "It's not how the laws of a country are administered."
The new fee partly resolves a debate among some conservatives that began last winter. Immigration hard-liners have argued that the foreign visa worker program has hurt the United States, because companies have brought in foreign workers at lower wages, displacing Americans. Business leaders, particularly in the technology sector, have said that the visa program has helped to keep American companies competitive.
By slamming the door on global talent, America pushes the next wave of labs, patents, innovation and startups to Bangalore and Hyderabad, Pune and Gurgaon, he stated. India’s finest Doctors, engineers, scientists, and innovators have an opportunity to contribute to India’s growth & progress towards Viksit Bharat, as per Kant. "America’s loss will be India’s gain."
India accounts for most H-1B visas
India remained the largest beneficiary of H-1B visas last year, accounting for 71% of approved applicants, while China was a distant second with 11.7%, according to government data.
In the first half of 2025, Amazon and its cloud unit AWS secured more than 12,000 H-1B approvals, while Microsoft and Meta each received over 5,000. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Friday that “all the big companies are on board” with paying $100,000 annually for H-1B visas. “We’ve spoken to them,” he added.
ALSO READ: Trump imposes new $100,000 fee for H-1B visas in sweeping overhaul
The visa, designed for high-skilled foreign workers in specialized roles, has been a key route for Indian engineers shaping the U.S. technology industry. Two main groups of Indians have benefited from the program: professionals employed by large U.S.-based IT firms and Indian graduates from American universities with advanced degrees who later apply for H-1B visas.
Most Indian H-1B holders work in STEM fields, with nearly 65% employed in computer-related jobs, according to a 2023 BBC report. The median annual salary for H-1B workers stands at around $118,000.
ALSO READ: Microsoft, Amazon, TCS, Apple: Tech giants that could be hit hardest by Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee
“Close to 80% of the petitions are now held by Indian workers. Part of it is because India has very much built their economy around services, software engineering – the type of skills that the U.S. economy tends to not have,” Britta Glennon, Assistant Professor of Management at the Wharton School and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, told Bloomberg.
Trump's new move explained
The moves were the latest efforts by the Trump administration in a wide-ranging crackdown on all forms of immigration.
The H-1B fee is likely to face legal challenges. But if it survives, companies that hire skilled international workers would have to pay $100,000 each year for any employee working on the visa, for up to six years. The fee applies only to new applicants, a White House official said.
ALSO READ: Microsoft asks all its foreign staff to return to US by Sunday after Trump's H1-B bombshell
"Either the person is very valuable to the company and America, or they're going to depart, and the company is going to hire an American," Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, said at the signing in the Oval Office on Friday. "And that's the point of immigration: Hire Americans and make sure the people coming in are the top, top people."
He added: "Stop the nonsense of letting people just come into this country on these visas that were given away for free."
Trump framed the "gold card" program as a way for the government to raise billions of dollars, and Lutnick said the program would likely replace all other green card visa programs.
"You can prove exceptional value to the United States America by contributing a million dollars to the United States of America," he said on a call with reporters after the signing of the proclamation.
Many industries rely on the H-1B visas to fill jobs, including technology and finance. Hospitals and universities also make ample use of them. The new fee could substantially affect their ability to fill jobs, changing the nature of the country's workforce.
As of late June, Amazon had more than 10,000 workers using H-1B visas, according to government data -- by far the most of any company. Other top beneficiaries included Microsoft, Meta, Apple, Google, JPMorgan Chase, Walmart and Deloitte.
Administration officials downplayed concerns about the $100,000 fee, saying it would help American workers' wages by discouraging companies from using the visas to bring in lower-wage international workers. Such an expense would also limit the number of applicants and provide more certainty for companies that had relied on a lottery, the officials added.
Historically, 85,000 new visas have been provided annually to hire so-called high-skilled foreign workers at companies through that lottery process. If people are selected through the lottery, they are required to pay a fee for a vetting process. The new $100,000 fee is being added to those costs, officials said.
Doug Rand, a former senior official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under President Joe Biden, questioned the legality of the policy. "Tying an entry ban to a fee, let alone a $100,000 fee, isn't likely to survive five seconds in court," he said.
Tom Jawetz, a former senior attorney at the Department of Homeland Security under Biden, also said the order would come under legal scrutiny. "This is how the mob operates when it demands protection money," he said. "It's not how the laws of a country are administered."
The new fee partly resolves a debate among some conservatives that began last winter. Immigration hard-liners have argued that the foreign visa worker program has hurt the United States, because companies have brought in foreign workers at lower wages, displacing Americans. Business leaders, particularly in the technology sector, have said that the visa program has helped to keep American companies competitive.
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