$100,000 visa fee one-time, only for new applications, says White House

The Government is viewing the Trump administration’s latest move as a major diplomatic challenge that mainly targets aspirational middle-class Indians, the sources said.

Earlier, clarity emerged on the visa move after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X that the $100,000 mentioned was “not an annual” but a “one-time fee” that applies only to new petitions.

“Those who already hold H-1B visas and are currently outside of the country will not be charged USD 100,000 to re-enter. H-1B visa holders can leave and re-enter the country to the same extent as they normally would; whatever ability they have to do that is not impacted by yesterday’s proclamation,” she said.

Leavitt added the proclamation applies only to new visas, not renewals, and not current visa holders and will first apply in the next upcoming lottery cycle.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) also said in a statement that the new H-1B requirement applies only to new, prospective petitions that have not yet been filed. H-1B petitions submitted before the effective proclamation date of September 21 are not affected, they said.

In a memorandum, USCIS Director Joseph Edlow wrote that the proclamation — “Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers” — issued by Trump Friday does not apply to “beneficiaries of petitions that were filed prior to the effective date of the proclamation, are the beneficiaries of currently approved petitions, or are in possession of validly issued H-1B non-immigrant visas”.

“All officers of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services shall ensure that their decisions are consistent with this guidance. The proclamation does not impact the ability of any current visa holder to travel to or from the United States,” the memo said.

A day earlier, when asked if the $100,000-fee would apply to H-1B visa holders already in the country, to renewals or to those applying for the first time from abroad, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, standing beside Trump in the Oval Office, had said: “Renewals, first times, the company needs to decide. Is that person valuable enough to have $100,000 a year payment to the government, or they should head home and they should go hire an American. It can be a total of six years, so $100,000 a year. So either the person is very valuable to the company and America, or they’re going to depart and the company is going to hire an American.”

Lutnick said: “That’s the point of immigration: hire Americans and make sure the people coming in are the top, top people. Stop the nonsense of letting people just come into this country on these visas that were given away for free. The president is crystal clear. Valuable people only for America. Stop the nonsense.”

These remarks had sent shockwaves through members of the Indian diaspora on H-1B visas, with September 21 specified as the deadline. There were reports that H-1B visa holders or their family members currently outside the US for work or vacation were scrambling to return within the next 24 hours rather than risk being stranded and denied entry.

As South Block and North Block started receiving panic calls, the Government asked all its missions and posts to extend all possible help to Indian nationals traveling back to the US in the next 24 hours.

Sources said New Delhi had been tracking these developments through the night and in the early hours of Sunday, and was in touch with the US authorities about the difficulties posed by the sudden announcement.

Delhi feels that the US administration’s focus on immigration has become a hot-button issue posing a challenge to bilateral relations — as was evident in the deportation of more than 1,500 Indians since February this year in shackles and handcuffs.

Unlike illegal immigrants, Indian professionals, Delhi feels, contribute to the American economy as legal and genuine foreign workers — because of the taxes they pay, the skills they bring to the table, the innovation they do, and the research they conduct in the American labs. That belief needs to be conveyed to the US leadership, and will be the focus of bilateral conversations in the coming weeks and months, sources said.

Sources recalled that similar moves had been made by the Trump 1.0 administration as well, when he had pushed for “Hire Americans” in 2017. At that time, sources said, then External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had raised the issue of restrictions on H-1B visas with her counterpart, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. The then Finance Minister, the late Arun Jaitley, had also raised similar concerns with American interlocutors.