The Trump administration’s new $100,000 fee for high-skill H1-B visas has set off panic and confusion among workers, foreign governments, and in boardrooms from Silicon Valley to Bengaluru.
Some US banks and tech companies told their non-citizen employees traveling abroad to return immediately before the changes took effect on Sunday. Officials later clarified that existing visa-holders would not be affected.
The move could inflame tensions between the US and India, which is the largest beneficiary of H-1B visas: New Delhi said the measure could have “humanitarian consequences.”
Advertisement
Advertisement
US tech firms like Apple and Amazon rely on the H-1B to employ highly qualified foreigners; making such hires costlier “will choke US innovation, and turbocharge India’s,” one Indian tech leader said.
