Trump administration extends H-1B visa fee restrictions, renews $100,000 payment for another year

PTC News Desk: US President Donald Trump has extended the $100,000 fee charged to employers hiring foreign workers under the H-1B visa programme for another year, the White House said. The fee, introduced in 2025, was scheduled to expire this month.

In a presidential proclamation issued on Friday, Trump claimed that the fee had resulted in a 92% drop in H-1B registrations by large IT outsourcing companies.

Indians continue to make up the largest group of beneficiaries of the US H-1B visa programme.

The $100,000 fee introduced in 2025 has been challenged in court and is currently pending before two federal courts. The earlier order did not apply to foreign students already in the US who later received H-1B visas, a group that accounts for a significant share of new H-1B recipients. It also did not apply to renewals of existing H-1B visas.

Review of H-1B sponsoring employers

The latest order gives the US Labour Secretary 30 days to begin reviewing data from previously filed labour condition applications.

The review will examine whether further action should be taken against employers that sponsor H-1B workers.

Trump has also issued a separate proclamation aimed at increasing scrutiny of H-1B applications through greater coordination between government agencies.

According to a White House fact sheet, the move is intended to strengthen the H-1B programme by improving coordination between agencies and increasing scrutiny of applications where there is a higher risk that American workers could lose their jobs.

The fact sheet said the Secretaries of State, Labour and Homeland Security have been directed to consider whether employers sponsoring H-1B workers have recently laid off, or plan to lay off, US workers in similar positions.

Trump said the H-1B programme was created to bring in highly skilled and specialised foreign workers who can supplement the US workforce and support the economy.