The White House has made a big change to its new H-1B visa policy, which had upset the IT industry the day before. They said that the $100,000 cost will only be charged once and only to new applicants.
Howard Lutnick, the US Secretary of Commerce, indicated over and over on Friday that the cost would be charged every year. However, a White House spokesman said yesterday that it is “a one-time fee that applies only to the petition,” according to AFP.
The official, who asked to remain anonymous, added, “It ONLY applies to new visas, not renewals or current visa holders.” This was because many current visa holders were unclear about whether the executive order applied to them.
The executive order goes into effect on Sunday at 12:01 a.m. (0401 GMT) or 9:01 p.m. Saturday on the Pacific Coast. It is sure to be challenged in court.
Before the White House made things clear, US businesses were rushing to figure out what it meant for their foreign workers. Some even told their employees not to leave the country.
The San Francisco Chronicle said that several passengers who were already aboard flights getting ready to depart the nation on Friday got off because they were afraid they wouldn’t be able to come back.
H-1B visas let businesses bring in foreign professionals with specific skills, such scientists, engineers, and computer programmers, to work in the US for three years, with the option to extend that time to six years.
The computer industry uses these kinds of visas a lot. Almost three-quarters of the permits given out each year through a lottery mechanism go to Indian citizens.
In 2024, the US gave out over 400,000 H-1B visas, two-thirds of which were for those who were already in the country.
On Friday, US President Donald Trump announced the change in Washington, saying it will help American workers.
The executive order declared that “the H-1B program has been deliberately used to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.”
Trump also talked about a $1 million “gold card” residency program that he had talked about months before.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as he signed the orders, “The main thing is that we’re going to have great people coming in and they will be paying.”
Lutnick, who was in the Oval Office with Trump, repeated over and over that the fee would be charged every year.
“The business needs to make a choice… Does the guy deserve to pay the government $100,000 a year? He told reporters, “Or they should go home and hire an American.”
He said that “all the big companies are on board,” but many businesses were still puzzled about the H-1B order’s specifics.
JPMorgan, a US bank, said that it had sent a note to its employees with H-1B visas telling them to stay in the US and not travel abroad until they got further information.
Tech entrepreneurs, including Trump’s former buddy Elon Musk, have said that going after H-1B visas is a bad idea because the US doesn’t have enough domestic talent to fill crucial tech industry job openings.
Nasscom, India’s largest IT industry group, claimed the new rule would hurt “business continuity” and was particularly worried about the short time frame.
Nasscom said in a statement that “a one-day deadline creates a lot of uncertainty for businesses, professionals, and students all over the world.”
India’s foreign ministry said that the movement of talented workers has helped both countries’ “technology development, innovation, economic growth, competitiveness, and wealth creation.” It also said that it will look into the adjustments.
It stated in a statement that the new policy would probably have “humanitarian consequences by way of the disruption caused for families,” and it hoped that US authorities would deal with this.
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