H-1B Visa Reform: Another Turning Point for Immigration Policies?

Guiselle Delgadillo

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

How will a $100,000 payment change the legal status and career paths of H-1B visa holders? As people rushed off the planes that were departing from the United States, news broke on September 19, 2025, that hundreds of thousands of people would be facing uncertainty. The Trump Administration announced that immigrants on the H-1B visa “presented a threat by discouraging Americans from pursuing careers in science, technology, and leadership.” This sudden decision raised questions about job security, legal status, and patriotism in the United States.

Immigration issues in the United States have always been hard to agree on because Democratic and Republican politicians never compromise on bipartisan solutions. The 1990s are a clear example of how existing immigration laws were revised to limit the number of people entering the United States. During the 1990s Congress amended certain provisions in the Immigration Act of 1965, theses changes would allow specialized groups to enter, such as educated workers. That’s when the H-1B Visa program was implemented to provide American companies the opportunity to hire global talent and professionals to work for them in the United States. The program was meant to provide solutions for companies that were facing employee shortages in order to remain competitive in their industry.

Since the announcement on September 19, 2025, the current Trump Administration has proposed restrictions on the entry of certain nonimmigrant workers. In the proclamation, Donald Trump claimed that the H-1B visa program is causing issues by replacing American workers rather than supplementing them with global employees. He stated that “the program has undermined both our economic and national security.” This statement reflects his stance on immigration, because in 2025 the Trump Administration has implemented numerous immigration changes, such as [E1] , enforcing massive ICE raids in sanctuary cities, and deploying the National Guard to several US cities because “Trump is seeking to use the National Guard to respond to demonstrations after protests near ICE buildings.”

The H-1B visa program has been criticized for suppressing wages and limiting job opportunities for American citizens compared to temporary workers. According to an immigration and policy researcher, “U.S. firms, including Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Apple, take advantage of program rules to pay their H-1B workers below the local median wage.”[E2]  Most science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and medical fields now must worry about the restrictions and regulations because, Donald Trump claimed that some H-1B visa holders and firms were abusing the program. Therefore, the Trump Administration implemented a policy that requires employers to pay a one-time payment of $100,000 for each employee that is on the H-1B visa. Previously, the cost for employers ranged from $2,000 to $5,000 per employee depending on the company's size and revenue. Critics argue that higher fees could make it more difficult for companies to hire highly skilled and educated foreign workers who contribute significantly to major industries and the U.S. economy.

The latest changes are set to affect workers from of India the most, as they make up 70% of current H-1B visa holders. According to JP Morgan’s top economists, they’re alarmed by this implementation because their report predicts that “the policy could reduce the number of work authorizations in the US by up to 5,500 per month, which will more than likely already hurt the indebted U.S. economy. After the news was announced, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs also issued a statement expressing their concerns: “We hope that these disruptions can be addressed suitably by the U.S. authorities.” The sentiment expresses the collective fear and uncertainty that current H-1B visa holders are facing.

After social media posts spread online from lawyers, economists, and news reporters, the issue continued to build up a fear of uncertainty for hundreds of thousands of H-1B visa holders. The White House noticed the news, and five days later, the Trump Administration clarified that the fee would not impact current visa holders, but there is no guarantee that the policy won’t go through changes. For now, this change only applies to the February 2026 lottery, according to White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson. Even though the registration fee doesn’t affect current employers, it still sparks anti-immigration sentiment towards H-1B workers because they are seen as a “threat” to the U.S. economy.

Even H-1B visa holders who have been in the United States for decades have voiced their worries. Nithin Hassan, formerly an employee of Meta who settled in the United States for 20 years with his family, decided to move back to Bengaluru, India, after hearing the announcement made by the Trump Administration. He stated that “he has always wanted to start something on his own, but his immigration status in the U.S. limited that freedom.” Hassaan’s story is only one of the thousands of individuals being affected by the policy change.

Each year, it’s estimated that only 85,000 H-1B visa applications are approved, and according to the American Immigration Council, “the presence of immigrant workers in the United States creates new job opportunities for native workers.” This statement explains that it is not possible that 85,000 people are overtaking all the jobs available in the United States and that this issue deals more with non-American workers gaining more opportunities than U.S. citizens. JP Morgan economists have prefaced the positive economic impact that H-1B visa holders have on the United States. They stated, “Many leading companies, including consulting firms and technology giants, rely heavily on H-1B visas. Therefore, the higher fees could suggest a reduction in applications, which slows down project timelines and innovation.

Given the rise of anti-immigrant rhetoric and the use of patriotic language to justify policies, the Trump Administration has stressed that raising the H-1B visa fee to $100,000 was aimed at limiting the number of international hires for 2026; however, coalitions are not stopping their demands for a change of the policy. On October 6, 2025, nearly two weeks after the announcement made on September 19, 2025, numerous higher education groups, including the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), and the President’s Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, joined the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California to file a lawsuit against the $100,000 fee.

The purpose of the H-1B program was to attract people from all over the world, but this limitation paints the United States as unwelcoming towards immigrants. These legal challenges have happened for the past eight months, and the only way for the Trump Administration to understand that immigrants are the backbone of the country is if the United States experiences further economic decline, which makes it difficult for American workers to replace the jobs held by H-1B visa holders