H-1B Fee Skyrockets to $103,000: Trump Strikes at Big Tech's Favorite Visa

President Donald Trump's administration is pressing on with its offensive against legal immigration, and this time the target is the H-1B visa — the very one so often treated as a symbol of Silicon Valley. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced a fee of more than $103,265 to process this visa for highly skilled specialists.

The H-1B is firmly associated with major technology companies: the three largest employers under the program are Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft. Trump's previous attempt to raise the cost of the visa to $100,000 was blocked by a federal judge back in June — but by that point more than 70 employers had already paid. Now the government wants to lock the amount in at the new level.

Not Just a Blow to Big Tech

Rights advocates and business representatives fear that the next target will be the OPT program (Optional Practical Training), which lets foreign students work in their field for 12 to 24 months — and for certain categories, even longer. DHS has hinted that it too could be hit with a $100,000 fee.

Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us (an organization founded by Mark Zuckerberg and other tech executives), called what is happening “plainly illegal” and stated outright that the goal is to shut down the H-1B and OPT programs. The consequences, he said, will be devastating: companies will start opening up abroad, and people will be hired in other countries.

At the same time, The Verge stresses that for giants like Amazon and Meta a hundred-thousand-dollar fee is a nuisance, whereas for rural hospitals and schools in Alaska — which, amid an outflow of population, increasingly rely on foreign specialists — it has proven catastrophic.

Revoking 200,000 Visas

Meanwhile, according to the Associated Press, the State Department intends to cancel up to 200,000 business and tourist visas issued between 2016 and 2026 to those who applied for asylum after entering the United States. This would be the largest mass visa cancellation in the country's history.

The department is framing this as closing a “loophole”: people supposedly arrive as short-term visitors and then request asylum. However, as the outlet notes, these people broke no law — an asylum application can only be filed while on U.S. soil; from abroad it is fundamentally impossible. At the same time, the administration has cut off most other humanitarian pathways: at the border with Mexico there is effectively a ban on asylum, refugee admissions have fallen to record lows, and priority is given to resettling white South Africans.

Schulte describes this as a “whole-of-government approach”: every alternative pathway becomes harder, more bureaucratic, or is closed off entirely. The Verge's conclusion is blunt: in his second term, Trump is making clear that the only immigrants wanted are those who either look a certain way or are prepared to pay a fortune for the right to work in America.

Source: The Verge