President Trump’s Executive Order Imposes Steep Fee on H-1B Visas, Threatening Tech Giants and Raising Questions About Worker Exploitation

The recent executive order signed by President Trump aims to significantly restrict the H-1B visa program, a move that could potentially impact hundreds of thousands of individuals currently residing in the U.S. and several major tech companies.

The order introduces a $100,000 fee for high-skilled workers seeking entry via the H-1B visa program, which has been widely utilized by numerous large corporations to hire software engineers and other highly specialized professionals. This change represents a significant overhaul for a program that has historically carried a $215 registry fee, with companies incurring additional costs for filing visa applications and legal fees.

In response to this executive order, some of the affected companies are urging their employees to remain in the U.S. or expedite their return by tonight. For instance, Amazon has advised its workforce to make every effort to clear U.S. customs before 12:00 a.m. EDT on Sunday, September 21, 2025. Similar advisories have been issued by Microsoft and JPMorgan Chase.

It is important to note that this new fee only applies to new visas, not renewals or current visa holders. The White House confirmed this detail to multiple media outlets.

Over half a million U.S. residents are currently in the country on H-1B visas, according to estimates from 2020. Each year, Congress allows for the issuance of 85,000 H-1B visas through a lottery system. These visas are designed for highly educated, high-skilled workers, such as software engineers and medical professionals.

Employers seeking to hire foreign workers under the H-1B program must first demonstrate that they have been unable to find suitable American workers and that the foreign worker will be paid a salary comparable to what an American worker would earn. While tech companies are major users of this program, other significant sponsors include JPMorgan Chase, Walmart, and staffing firms like Tata and Cognizant.

Critics argue that U.S. employers have exploited the H-1B visa program by replacing American workers with lower-paid foreign labor. This perspective has been voiced by various labor economists and politicians across the political spectrum. A study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) in 2020 found that most H-1B employers pay migrant workers less than market rate salaries.

Ron Hira, a political science professor at Howard University who specializes in high-skilled immigration, cautiously praised Trump’s executive order. While he acknowledges that the order is headed in the right direction, some immigration-focused groups have criticized it for potentially shrinking the talent pipeline and undermining job creation.

The new fee on H-1B visas is likely to be perceived as a setback by the tech industry, which heavily relies on foreign-born workers each year. In 2020, Amazon sponsored the highest number of workers on H-1B visas, followed by Tata, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Google. Tesla, another significant user of the program, has faced accusations of underpaying its workers through this system.

The relationship between tech companies and President Trump has been complex. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, was once an ally of the president but they publicly fell out earlier this year. The steep new fees on the H-1B visa program underscore the ongoing challenges that these companies face in their efforts to curry favor with the president.

In recent years, the founders and CEOs of many top H-1B sponsors have sought to build a relationship with President Trump. They attended his inauguration, donated to his inaugural fund, promised investments in the U.S., and met with him at the White House. However, the new fee on H-1B visas represents another policy that could make it more difficult for them to operate in the U.S.