Trump signs proclamation imposing $100K fee on H-1B visas

President Donald Trump signed a proclamation Sept. 19 imposing a $100,000 application fee for H-1B worker visas, a move the White House says will help protect American jobs from being outsourced. 

Current fees, by comparison, include a $215 lottery registration charge along with additional filing costs, according to Bloomberg, which first reported on the news.

During the signing ceremony, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick argued that the measure will encourage American companies to hire US graduates instead of hiring foreign workers to fill jobs. 

“If you’re going to train someone, you’re going to train one of the recent graduates from one of the great universities across our land,” he said. “Train Americans. Stop bringing in people to take our jobs, that’s our policy here.”

The H-1B visa program allows US companies to bring in foreign workers for high-skill jobs that require at least a bachelor’s degree, covering fields from engineering and medicine to business and the arts. 

The visa is especially popular with large tech companies. According to the Associated Press, Amazon was the top recipient of H-1B visas this year with more than 10,000 awarded, followed by Tata Consultancy, Microsoft, Apple, and Google.

In a separate order, Trump also launched the “Trump Gold Card,” a program offering expedited immigrant visas for those who make large contributions to the federal government. The policy requires a $1 million donation for an individual or $2 million for a corporation sponsoring a foreign worker.

Announcing the initiative on Truth Social, Trump predicted the program will generate more than $100 billion in revenue. 

“For far too long, we have had millions of Illegal Aliens pouring into our Country, and our Immigration System was broken. It is beyond time that the American People, and American Taxpayers, are benefitting from our LEGAL Immigration System,” he wrote. “We anticipate THE TRUMP GOLD CARD will generate well over $100 Billion Dollars very quickly. This money will be used for reducing Taxes, Pro Growth Projects, and paying down our Debt.”