H-1B visa: Trump add $100,000 fee for skilled worker US visa applicants

US President Donald Trump don sign one executive order wey go add a $100,000 (£74,000) annual fee for applicants to di H-1B visa programme for skilled foreign workers.

Trump order mention “abuse” of di programme and go restrict entry unless dem make payment.

Critics bin don argue say di H-1B visa dey undercut di American workforce, while supporters – including billionaire Elon Musk – argue say e dey allow US to attract top talent from around di world.

For anoda order, Trump set up a new “gold card” to fast-track visas for certain immigrants in exchange for fees starting at £1m.

Trump order dey due to come into force on 21 September. E go only apply to new requests, but companies go get to pay di same amount for each applicant for six years, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick tok.

“Di company need to decide… weda di person dey valuable enough to warrant a $100,000-a-year payment to di govment, or weda make dem dey go home, and dem go hire American,” e tok, adding say: “All of di big companies dey on board.”

Since 2004, di number of H-1B applications don dey pegged at 85,000 per year.

Until now, H-1B visas don come wit various administrative fees totalling around $1,500.

Data from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) show say applications for H-1B visas for di next fiscal year fall to about 359,000 – wey be a four-year low.

Di greatest beneficiary of di programme for di previous fiscal year na Amazon, followed by tech giants Tata, Microsoft, Meta, Apple and Google, according to govment statistics.

Tahmina Watson, wey be a founding attorney for Watson Immigration Law, tell BBC say di ruling fit be a “nail in di coffin” for many of her clients wey be mostly small businesses and start-ups.

“Almost everyone go dey priced out. Dis $100,000 as entry point go get devastating impact,” she add, she note say many small or medium-sized companies “go tell you say dem actually no fit find workers to do di job”.

“Wen employers sponsor foreign talent, more often dan not, dem dey do am because dme never fit fulfil those positions,” Ms Watson add.

Jorge Lopez, chair of di immigration and global mobility practice group for Littler Mendelson PC, say a $100,000 fee “go put di brakes on American competitiveness for di tech sector and all industries”.

Some companies fit consider setting up operations outside US, though doing so fit dey challenging in practice, e add.

Di debate over H-1Bs before don cause palava within Trump team and supporters, e put those in favour of di visas against critics such as former strategist Steve Bannon.

Trump tell reporters for White House in January say e understand “both sides of the argument” on H-1Bs.

Di year before – while e dey look to attract support from di tech industry while e dey campaign – Trump vow to make di process of attracting talent easier, going as far as to propose green cards for college graduates.

“You need a pool of pipo to work for companies,” e bin tell di All-In Podcast. “You need to be able to recruit dis pipo and keep dis pipo.”

Early for im first term for 2017, Trump sign executive order wey increased investigation of H-1B applications, so as to improve fraud detection.

Rejections rise to an all-time high of 24% for di 2018 fiscal year, compared to between 5% and 8% under Barack Obama and den between 2% and 4% under Joe Biden.

At dat time, tech companies push back, harshly criticising Trump administration H-1B order.

Di potential for additional restrictions to di H-1B programme don cause concern for kontries such as India – wey be by far di largest source kontri for such visa applications.