The White House on Saturday (local time) issued a ‘factsheet‘, justifying President Donald Trump’s decision to impose a whopping USD 100,000 (over Rs 88 lakh) fee on new H-1B applications, saying that American workers were being replaced with “lower-paid foreign labour”.

Giving out facts to back the administration’s decision to overhaul the H-1B programme, the White House said the share of IT workers with H-1B visas rose from 32 per cent in FY 2003 to over 65 per cent in recent years.

“Unemployment among recent computer science graduates has reached 6.1 per cent and 7.5 per cent for computer engineering graduates – more than double the rates for biology or art history majors. The number of foreign STEM workers in the US has more than doubled between 2000 and 2019, while overall STEM employment only increased 44.5 per cent during that time,” the White House said.

Citing details of some companies hiring many H-1B workers and laying off thousands of US employees, the White House said a firm approved 5,189 H-1B workers in FY 2025 and fired roughly 16,000 U.S. employees this year.

“Another company was approved for 1,698 H-1B workers in FY 2025, yet announced it was laying off 2,400 US workers in Oregon in July. A third company has reduced its US workforce by 27,000 since 2022 while receiving 25,075 H-1B approvals. Yet another company reportedly cut 1,000 American jobs in February despite receiving 1,137 H-1B approvals for FY 2025,” the factsheet said.

The White House said Trump’s move to impose USD 100,000 annual fee on H-1B visa applications was a step to put American workers first and give back jobs to them to tackle unemployment.

“Voters gave President Trump a resounding mandate to put American workers first, and he has worked every day to deliver on that commitment. President Trump has aggressively and successfully negotiated new trade deals to bring manufacturing jobs back home and attract new investments to the US,” the White House said.

“Since President Trump returned to office, all employment gains have gone to American-born workers, unlike last year during the same period under President (Joe) Biden, when all employment gains went to foreign-born workers,” it added.

NEW H-1B FEE, PANIC AND CLARIFICATION

Widespread panic, confusion and concern had gripped Indians in the US on H-1B visas in the hours after Trump’s order to impose the fee, with many cancelling travel plans at the last minute while waiting to board flights to the homeland and several others already in India scrambling to return.

Immigration attorneys and companies sounded the alarm for H-1B visa holders or their family members currently outside the US for work or vacation, asking them to return to the US before the proclamation kicked in on Sunday.

Following this, the Trump administration clarified that the new USD 100,000 fee for H-1B visas does not apply to current visa holders and is a one-time payment only for new petitions. The White House said that the new H-1B visa requirement applies only to new and prospective petitions that have not yet been filed.

H-1B petitions submitted before the effective proclamation date of September 21 are not affected. Those visa holders currently outside the US also do not need to pay the fee for reentering the country, the White House added.

The clarification came as a huge relief for thousands of panic-stricken professionals working in the US, including those from India, who are concerned about being impacted by the new rule.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Saturday said it was closely studying the sweeping changes to the US H-1B visa programme, including the steep new USD 100,000 annual application fee, warning that the move could cause humanitarian disruptions for families.

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(with inputs from PTI)