You graduate from a college, I think you should get, automatically as part of your diploma, a green card [permanent residence in the United States],\u201d promised Donald Trump on the campaign trail last year. As president, on September 19th, Mr Trump headed in the opposite direction. He proposed a charge of $100,000 on new applications for\u00a0H-1B<\/small>\u00a0visas, a favourite of technology firms hiring foreign graduates. Each year 85,000 are issued by lottery (demand far outstrips that quota). Hitherto the cost of securing one has been about $2,500 in legal and filing fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Big tech firms<\/a> dominate the visas (see chart 1). Amazon alone received more than 14,000 approvals in 2025 (renewals do not count against the 85,000 quota). Indian IT<\/small>-services giants such as Infosys, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS<\/small>), also routinely rank among the top sponsors. And Indian citizens scoop most of the visas\u2014about three-quarters of them in 2023. Apart from China (12%), no other country secures more than 2%. Many of Mr Trump\u2019s supporters complain that this means jobs that could go to talented Americans go to Indian graduates instead. But the effects of the new charge may be more complicated than they expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the weekend many of America\u2019s tech giants scrambled to advise employees on\u00a0H-1B<\/small>\u00a0visas not to leave the country until the rules are clarified; whether exemptions will be made for some groups remains uncertain. The announcement has been most keenly felt, though, in India. In August Mr Trump imposed a 50% tariff on Indian goods, sparing only essentials such as electronics and pharmaceuticals. Now he has hit the country\u2019s most successful sector. According to Goldman Sachs, services exports grew from $53bn to $338bn between 2005 and 2023, almost twice the global rate. That growth was driven by a boom in India\u2019s population of engineers, particularly in computer science. The\u00a0IT<\/small>\u00a0firms relied on sending engineers to America under the\u00a0H-1B<\/small>\u00a0programme to serve clients, a cornerstone of their business model. For decades\u00a0H-1B<\/small>s offered Indian techies a route to better-paid jobs in America. That path now looks far less certain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read it all<\/a>.<\/p> The perverse consequence of America\u2019s $100,000 visa fees https:\/\/t.co\/AbOuOhgZi6<\/a> via @TheEconomist<\/a><\/p>— Adi Gaskell (@AdiGaskell) September 23, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote>