Trump imposes an annual $ 100K rate for Visa H-1b applications

Washington (AP)-President Donald Trump signed on Friday a proclamation that will require an annual visa rate of $ 100,000 for highly qualified foreign workers and implemented a “gold card” visa of $ 1 million as a path for US citizenship for rich people, movements that face almost cerebral legal challenges of $ 1 critic in general.

If the movements survive the legal meeting, they will offer amazing price increases. The visa rate for qualified workers would skip $ 215. The rate for investor visas, which are common in many European countries, would increase from $ 10,000 to $ 20,000 per year.

H-1B visas, which require at least one degree, are intended for highly qualified jobs that technological companies consider difficult to fill. Critics say that the program is a pipe for foreign workers who are often willing to work for only $ 60,000 annually, well below salaries of $ 100,000 more paid to US technological workers.

Trump insisted on Friday that the technology industry would not oppose the measure. The Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, said “all large companies” are on board.

Alex Brandon through News

The representatives of the largest technological companies, including Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta, did not immediately respond to the messages to comment on Friday. Microsoft declined to comment.

Lutnick said the change will probably result in much less H-1B visas than the annual limit of 85,000 allows “it is no longer economical.”

“If you are going to train people, you will train Americans.” Lutnick said at a telephone conference with journalists. “If you have a very sophisticated engineer and want to bring them … then you can pay $ 100,000 a year for your H-1B visa.”

Trump also announced that he will start selling a “gold card” visa with a road to US citizenship for $ 1 million after research investigation. For companies, it will cost $ 2 million to sponsor an employee.

The “Trump Platinum” Card will be available for $ 5 million and will allow foreigners to spend up to 270 days in the United States without being subject to US taxes on non -American income. Trump announced a $ 5 million gold card in February to replace an existing investor visa; This is now the platinum card.

Lutnick said that gold and platinum cards would replace employment -based visas that offer paths to citizens, even for teachers, scientists, artists and athletes.

The critics of the H-1BS visas that say they are accustomed to replace US workers applauded the move. American technology workers, a defense group, called it “the next best option” to abolish the visas completely.

Doug Rand, a senior official of the United States citizenship and immigration services during the Biden Administration, said the increase in the proposed rate was “ridiculously without law.”

“This is not a real policy, its fan service for immigration restrictionists,” Rand said. “Trump gets his headlines and inflicts a panic shake, and does not care if this survives the first contact with the courts.”

Lutnick said the H-1B rates and the Gold Card could be introduced by the president, but the platinum card needs the approval of the Congress.

Historically, H-1B visas have been distributed through the lottery. This year, Amazon was, with much, the main H-1B visa winner with more than 10,000 winners, followed by Tata Consultancy, Microsoft, Apple and Google. Geographically, California has the largest number of H-1B workers.

Critics say that H-1B points often go to entry level work, instead of high-level positions with unique skill requirements. And although the program should not be supposed to undermine the salaries of the United States or displace US workers, critics say that companies can pay less classifying jobs at lower skill levels, even if the specific workers hired have more experience.

As a result, many American companies find it cheaper to hire aid, programming and other basic tasks for consulting for companies such as Wipro, Infosys, Technologies and Tata in India and IBM and Cognizant in the United States, these consulting companies hire foreign workers, often from India, and hire them to obtain US employers who seek to save money.

The First Lady Melania Trump, the former Knauss melania, received an H-1B work visa in October 1996 to work as a model. She was born in Slovenia.

In 2024, lottery offers for visas fell almost 40%, which the authorities said it was due to success against people who were “playing the system” by presenting multiple applications, sometimes doubtful, to unfairly increase the possibilities of being selected.

The main technology companies that use H-1B visas sought changes after mass increases in offers left their employees and possible hiring with thinner possibilities to win the random lottery. Facing what he recognized was probably fraud and abuse, USCIS this year said that each employee only had one chance in the lottery, if the person had a job offer or 50.

The critics welcomed the change, but they said you have to do more. The AFL-CiO wrote last year that, although the changes in the lottery “included some steps in the right direction”, did not reach the necessary reforms. The labor group wants the visas to be granted to the companies that pay the highest wages instead of random lottery, a change that Trump sought during his first mandate in the White House.

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Ortutay reported Oakland’s writers, California News, Adriana Gómez Licon in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.