President Donald Trump on Friday signed a proclamation introducing a $100,000 annual fee on H-1B visa applications, a move that could significantly impact the United States tech sector, which depends heavily on skilled workers from India and China.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said at a press briefing that “all the major companies” had already been briefed on the new measure.

“A hundred-thousand dollars a year for H-1B visas, and all of the big companies are on board. We’ve spoken to them,” Lutnick said at an Oval Office event with the US president.

“If you’re going to train somebody, you’re going to train one of the recent graduates from one of the great universities across our land. Train Americans. Stop bringing
in people to take our jobs,” he said.

Trump’s push to tighten restrictions on H-1B visas has emerged as a major source of friction with the tech sector, despite its significant financial support for his presidential campaign.

No industry in the U.S. economy depends more on H-1B workers than technology.

Government data shows that about two-thirds of H-1B roles are computer-related, though the visas are also used to recruit engineers, teachers, and healthcare professionals.

In the first half of 2025 alone, Amazon secured more than 10,000 H-1B approvals, while Microsoft and Meta each obtained over 5,000. The program currently allocates 65,000 visas annually for skilled foreign workers, with an additional 20,000 reserved for those holding advanced degrees.

Opponents of the H-1B program, particularly U.S. tech workers, contend that it allows companies to hold down wages and bypass Americans capable of doing the jobs. Advocates, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, argue the visas are critical for bringing in specialized talent and maintaining competitiveness. Musk, a South African-born entrepreneur who became a naturalized U.S. citizen, once relied on an H-1B visa himself.

Imposing steep new fees “creates disincentive to attract the world’s smartest talent to the U.S.,” Deedy Das, a partner at Menlo Ventures, cautioned in a post on X.

“If the US ceases to attract the best talent, it drastically reduces its ability to innovate and grow the economy,” Das said.

“Either the person is very valuable to the company and America, or they are going to depart and the company is going to hire an American,” Lutnick said at the briefing. “And that’s the point of immigration. Hire Americans and make sure the people coming in are the top, top people. Stop the nonsense.”

Immigration experts are raising doubts over whether the executive branch has the legal authority to impose such a steep annual fee.

The measure marks the Trump administration’s latest attempt to restrict—or generate additional revenue from—legal immigration. Just last month, the U.S. introduced a pilot program permitting consular officers to require bonds of up to $15,000 for tourist and business visas from countries with high overstay rates or limited vetting records.