H-1B visa fee: No US entry from Sunday unless $100K paid

H-1B employees, including current visa holders, will be denied entry to the US beginning Sunday unless their employer has paid a USD 100,000 annual fee (over Rs 88 lakh) for the employee, as per a proclamation signed by President Donald Trump on Friday (local time). The travel ban and fee requirement will apply to any H-1B holder entering the US after 12:01 am EDT (9:30 am IST) on Sunday (September 21). New H-1B and H-1B extensions must pay USD 100,000 to be processed and USD 100,000 per year every year thereafter to maintain them, the proclamation said.

Immigration attorneys and companies have asked the H-1B visa holders or their family members currently outside America for work or vacation to return within the next 24 hours or risk being stranded and denied entry into the US after the proclamation comes into effect from 12:01 am September 21. Currently, the H-1B visa fee ranges from about USD 2000 to USD 5000, depending on employer size and other costs. The visas are valid for three years and can be renewed for another three years. The move is going to significantly impact Indian technology workers who are hired by tech companies and others on H-1B visas.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is the second-highest beneficiary with 5,505 approved H-1B visas in 2025, after Amazon (10,044 workers on H-1B visas), according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Other top beneficiaries include Microsoft (5,189), Meta (5,123), Apple (4,202), Google (4,181), Deloitte (2,353), Infosys (2,004), Wipro (1,523) and Tech Mahindra Americas (951).

In his proclamation, Trump said the H-1B visa programme was created to bring temporary workers into the US to perform additive, high-skilled functions, but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labour. "The abuse of the H-1B programme is also a national security threat. Domestic law enforcement agencies have identified and investigated H-1B-reliant outsourcing companies for engaging in visa fraud, conspiracy to launder money..., and other illicit activities to encourage foreign workers to come to the US,” he said. Trump said that it is necessary to impose higher costs on companies seeking to use the H-1B programme to address the abuse of that programme while still permitting companies to hire the best of the best temporary foreign workers.

If a company sponsors an employee for the Green Card, the visas can be renewed till the permanent residency comes through. However, Indians on work visas in the US are caught in a decades-long wait for Green Cards, and the new move could have an impact on whether they can continue to stay in the US if their companies decide not to pay the USD 100,000 fee annually now required to retain the visas.

The restriction on entry shall apply only to those individuals who enter or attempt to enter the United States after September 21, 2025. "H-1B visa holders who are out of the US on business or vacation will get stranded unless they get in before midnight September 21. H-1Bs still in India may have already missed the deadline, as there is no way a direct flight from India will get in time,” New York-based immigration attorney Cyrus Mehta said in a post on X. “There may still be a way for an H-1B visa holder who is in India to arrive in California before midnight September 21, 2025,” Mehta said.