President Donald Trump’s new $100,000 fee for high-skill visa holders only applies to new applicants — not current visa holders who may be on travel outside of the U.S. — according to a U.S. official granted anonymity to speak about the policy.
The president’s H-1B announcement on Friday immediately spurred chaos, with companies and immigration lawyers warning travelers to return to the U.S. before midnight on Monday, when the new policy is scheduled to kick in.
The text of the presidential proclamation signed on Friday does not make this distinction between existing visa-holders and future applicants clear, and the administration has not released additional guidance clarifying this narrowed interpretation. According to the proclamation, the secretary of Homeland Security will “restrict decisions on petitions” lacking the new fee for H-1B workers “who are currently outside the United States.”
The U.S. official said current H-1B visa holders “do not need to be rushing back before Sunday.”
But critics of Trump’s order said the administration needs to publicly make clear the bounds of the new policy, even as immigration lawyers signal that lawsuits challenging the administration are likely in the works.
“It’s quite possible that DHS may release guidance saying that it does not apply to everyone, despite what it says,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council in a post on X. “But right now there is nothing official from the U.S. government saying so. They need to get it out TODAY if they want to ‘tamp down panic.’”
The mass panic has echoes of the 2017 travel ban, when there was widespread uncertainty about the policy and a rapid implementation that came with little warning or guidance for airport and border staff. The new policy is set to take effect later this weekend, but the Trump administration has provided limited guidance for visa holders or information about how the agencies will implement the new fee hike.
“Clients should act now: H-1B workers abroad must return to the U.S. before 12:01 am on Sept. 21, when new $100,000 fee rules take effect,” said Allen Orr Jr, an immigration lawyer and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “Avoid international travel until clarified. Cap beneficiaries with valid visas should enter immediately.”
Tech giants Microsoft, JPMorgan and Amazon — which all employ significant numbers of people holding the visa — advised employees with H-1B visas to remain in the U.S. following Friday’s proclamation, according to a report from Reuters.
Trump announced his overhaul of the H-1B program on Friday, alongside Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in the Oval Office. The White House argued the program has long been exploited by employers, leading to the displacement of U.S. workers.
Lutnick also said the fee amount was reached after the White House consulted with companies. The visa program was an early flashpoint in the president’s second term, as MAGA allies pushing for tighter restrictions clashed with tech entrepreneurs pushing for more visas. Technology companies will be hit hardest by the fee hike.
“The whole idea is no more with these big tech companies or other big companies training foreign workers. They have to pay the government $100,000, and then they have to pay the employee,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said beside Trump in the Oval Office. “If you’re going to train somebody, you’re going to train one of the recent graduates from one of the great universities across our land. Train Americans, stop bringing in people that take our jobs.”
But questions remain about how the Trump administration will quickly implement a system to accept payments, as some agencies are still waiting on guidance from the White House. A second U.S. official, who was similarly granted anonymity, said State officials were told to “adjudicate as normal,” for now.
When reached for comment, a State Department spokesperson said only that the agency was “working closely with the White House and interagency partners to implement” the order and directed further questions to the White House.
The president’s order uses 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to ban the entry of any H-1B applicants who haven’t paid the new fee. And it directs the secretaries of State and Homeland Security to implement the proclamation and “and to deny entry to the United States any H-1B nonimmigrant for whom the prospective employer has not made the payment.”
Within the next month, Trump has ordered the secretaries of State, Labor, Homeland Security and the attorney general to recommend whether or not to extend the ban on entry.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) warned that while it’s likely that “many companies will pay” to secure employees’ visas, the decision would further limit the U.S.’s ability to attract foreign skilled students and workers.
“We still need to attract world-class talent in America, and unfortunately, because of the anti-immigrant flavor of a lot of the president’s policies, we are not getting the same caliber of folks coming to our graduate programs, universities, and frankly even in trying to come and work in America,” the senator told Bloomberg on Friday after initial reports of the administration’s move. “And that’s long-term going to hurt our economy.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chair of the Judiciary Committee, acknowledged on X on Saturday that Trump’s announcement would likely rile “tech [companies] & biz groups,” going on to chide the business lobby for opposing H-1B visa reform that he and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) have long pursued.
The H-1B announcement has also ruffled feathers abroad. India, the country to which the U.S. grants the largest number of H-1B visas, immediately expressed concern about the decision.
“The full implications of the measure are being studied by all concerned, including by Indian industry, which has already put out an initial analysis clarifying some perceptions related to the H1B program,” Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, wrote in a statement on X.
Jaiswal also stressed the importance of maintaining industry ties between the two countries for competitiveness and economic growth, saying that policy makers would “assess recent steps taking into account mutual benefits.”
The spokesperson also noted that the move would prompt “humanitarian consequences” as it would likely disrupt families with H-1B holders. The Indian government, Jaiswal wrote, “hopes that these disruptions can be addressed suitably by the U.S. authorities.”
Nahal Toosi contributed to this report.
