WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump has extended an executive order that would impose a fee of US$100,000 for H-1B non-immigrant visas by another year, the White House said on Friday. U.S. employers seeking to hire skilled foreign workers can use the federal government’s H-1B visa program for a fee, allowing tech and other professionals from abroad to work in the United States for a few years. Trump, who has pursued an aggressive immigration crackdown, has criticized the program and wants to permanently raise the fee from between US$2,000 and US$5,000 to at least US$100,000, though the attempt has faced legal challenges. A Boston-based appeals court is reviewing a June decision by a federal judge who deemed the higher fee imposed by the Trump administration illegal and blocked the government from collecting it. Another court is considering whether a judge properly rejected a challenge to the fee by the US Chamber of Commerce, the largest US business lobbying group. Trump’s initial order for a fee hike, first released in September 2025, was set to expire this month. It did not apply to visas granted to foreign citizens already in the United States on student visas, who make up a large share of new H-1B recipients, or to renewals of current visas. Despite criticism that some companies use the visas to hire lower-paid foreign workers instead of Americans, business groups and companies say they help recruit highly skilled professionals and address a lack of qualified US workers in some industries. The visas, established by Congress in 1990, are especially critical for tech companies seeking to recruit from India and China. Changes to how potential visa holders are scrutinized and processed have impacted companies’ hiring and expansion plans, with some top H-1B users, such as Google parent company Alphabet, moving to increase operations in India. (Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Daphne Psaledakis, Will Dunham and Sergio Non) Kanishka Singh, Reuters
