President Donald Trump is introducing a nonrefundable $100,000 application fee for companies applying for a H-1B visa. Trump said the program had been “deliberately exploited” to replace American workers with lower paid and less-skilled labor.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who has called the H-1B system a “scam,” said all of the “big companies are on board.” The White House, which announced the new fees Sept. 19, clarified the next day that existing holders of H-1B visas who were out of the country would not be charged to re-enter the country.
Research shows visa workers complement American workers due to different skillsets. Jobs tend to be concentrated in STEM fields, with giant companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Indian IT company Tata, Apple and Google accounting for the most in 2025, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data.
H-1B visa holders include biochemists, biophysicists, chemists and other scientists, as well as health care professionals. In 2017, H-1B visa applicants accounted for 1.4% of all practicing physicans, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Trump called the H-1B program “very bad” and ‘unfair” in a 2016 primary debate and restricted it in his first term. He seemed to temporarily change his mind at the beginning of his second term, after the leaders of his new Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, came out strongly in favor, with Trump telling the New York Post that he “always been in favor of the visas.”
On Sept. 19, Trump also signed an executive order creating a “gold card” for foreigners to pay $1 million to stay in the United States permanently.
What are H-1B visas?
Created in 1990, the H-1B program allows U.S. companies to temporarily employ foreign workers in “specialty occupations” when they possess highly specialized knowledge and a bachelor’s degree or higher in the specific specialty, or its equivalent, according to USCIS.
Employers must first attest that foreign workers won’t affect wages or labor conditions for similar American workers, the American Immigration Council, a pro-immigration advocacy group, said in a 2024 fact sheet. Existing workers must be notified of a company’s plan to hire a visa worker.
Visas usually last three years but can be extended to six, with other options for extensions such as getting an approved immigrant visa petition under employment-based categories for individuals with extraordinary abilities. Previously, applications could cost employers about $5,000 per applicant.
H-1B visas have been criticized for conditions compared to indentured slavitude and suppressing wages in the tech sector. Visa holders are obligated to maintain employment with the sponsoring employers or must leave the country, unless they can get a new H-1B sponsorship from another employer or otherwise change their status.
How many H-1Bs are awarded each year?
The federal government caps new H-1B visas at 65,000, with an additional 20,000 visas for people who have earned a master’s degree or higher from an American higher education institution. If there are more applicants than that cap, the USCIS uses a lottery system.
The majority of H-1B approvals come from renewal applications, Pew Research Center said. Out of around 400,000 approvals in the 2024 fiscal year, nearly two-thirds were renewals.
H-1B visa holders may also bring immediate family members to the U.S. such as a spouse and children under 21.
Where do H-1B workers come from?
Nearly three-in-four H-1B workers come from India, according to the Pew Research Center. China is next, supplying about 12%. The remaining 16% come from all over the world.
What has Gov. DeSantis said about H-1B visas?
Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has made cracking down on undocumented immigrants a signature issue of his time in office,. has not been a fan of H-1B visas. In an August interview on Fox News, he said that the H-1B program was a “total scam.”
“Companies lay off Americans while bringing in new H-1Bs. It’s not the best and brightest. It’s a cottage industry, mostly from one country,” he said, talking about India.
“Why would we be importing foreign workers when we need to take care of our people?” he said. “These workers save companies money, but they also create a system of indentured servitude that’s taken advantage of time and time again. We will put American people first.”
How many H-1B visas were issued for Florida employers?
According to the latest data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as of the third quarter of 2025, there have been 7,482 H-1B initial or renewed visas applied for by 1,917 employers, with 7,246 approved in this fiscal year.
Which employers use the most H-1B employees in Florida?
The companies operating in Florida with the most approved H-1B visas in 2025 are:
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: What is an H-1B visa? Trump creates $100,000 fee to hire foreign tech workers
Reporting by C. A. Bridges and Eduardo Cuevas, USA TODAY NETWORK / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
