AI-Summary – News For Tomorrow
A surprise $100,000 visa fee imposed by the Trump administration triggered immediate panic and confusion among workers, companies, and foreign governments. The order’s unclear application to renewals and existing visa holders led to widespread travel cancellations and urgent memos advising employees against leaving the U.S. Tech companies, reliant on these visas for skilled workers, were especially affected. While the White House later clarified the fee applied only to new applications, the initial chaos disrupted travel plans and sparked fears of being locked out of the U.S. India, the largest beneficiary of H-1B visas, expressed concerns about humanitarian consequences. Trump defended the fee as protecting American workers.
News summary provided by Gemini AI.
The surprise order from the Trump administration imposing a new $100,000 fee on some visas set off a day of frantic travel as workers, companies and foreign governments scrambled to respond to Washington’s latest immigration crackdown.
President Donald Trump signed the proclamation Friday requiring companies to pay the fee to obtain the visas, which major tech companies rely on to fill high-skilled jobs.
The order offered little clarity, however, on whether the steep new charge applied only to fresh applications, or might also ensnare renewals and even those already holding valid visas.
The ambiguity was enough to trigger a worst-case interpretation inside boardrooms and across living rooms from Bengaluru to London.
India’s government said the measure was likely to have “humanitarian consequences by way of the disruption caused for families,” adding the “full implications of the measure” were being studied. It comes as New Delhi and Washington resume trade negotiations on the Trump administration’s steep tariffs.
For a tense 24 hours, workers feared they could be locked out of the U.S. altogether.
Tech companies and banks sent urgent memos to employees advising them not to leave the country. Bags were packed, tickets bought, and families left behind as visa holders scrambled to beat what they believed was a looming deadline.
Footage verified by NBC News showed chaos and confusion on an outbound flight from San Francisco to Dubai after Trump’s announcement.
The captain is heard citing “unprecedented” circumstances, saying “there’s a number of passengers that do not wish to travel with us.”
The passenger who posted the footage on Instagram said a number of people chose to leave the aircraft, and that he was stuck “in the same spot for over three hours, waiting for the flight to depart.”
Microsoft, Amazon and Goldman Sachs were among the companies that sent urgent e-mails to H-1B holders with travel advisories.
“The Proclamation does not apply to anyone who has a current visa,” the White House rapid response account said on X, clarifying that the proclamation only applies to future applications.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had said Friday that companies would have to pay $100,000 per year for H-1B worker visas. But White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X on Saturday that this was not an annual fee, only a one-time fee that applied to each petition.
But the scramble had already left its mark.
Rohan Singh, who works as a manufacturing engineer in North Carolina, cancelled his plan to visit India, saying there was “panic among H-1B visa holders,”
“We don’t know what’s ahead,” he told the Reuters news agency.
India was the largest beneficiary of H-1B visas last year, accounting for 71% of approved beneficiaries, while China was a distant second at 11.7%, according to government data.
South Korea, which is still reeling from a Sept. 4 raid by immigration authorities on a Hyundai battery plant in Georgia, also said it was paying close attention to the change.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for overnight comment from NBC News.
Trump “promised to put American workers first, and this commonsense action does just that by discouraging companies from spamming the system and driving down wages,” Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, told CNBC. “It also gives certainty to American businesses who actually want to bring high-skilled workers to our great country but have been trampled on by abuses of the system.”
Amazon, Meta, Google, Apple and Walmart, are among the biggest users of visas under the program, which was signed into law by then-President George H.W. Bush in 1990.
The fee had ranged from $2,000 to $5,000 per application.
Trump said Friday that tech companies would be pleased with the changes.
“I think they’re going to be very happy. Everyone’s going to be happy,” Trump said.
