The change could deal a big blow to the technology sector that relies heavily on skilled workers from India and China.

Since taking office in January, Trump has kicked off a wide-ranging immigration crackdown, including moves to limit some forms of legal immigration. The step to reshape the H-1B visa program represents his administration's most high-profile effort yet to rework temporary employment visas.

"If you're going to train somebody, you're going to train one of the recent graduates from one of the great universities across our land," said Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Train Americans. Stop bringing in people to take our jobs."

Trump's threat to crack down on H-1B visas has become a major flashpoint with the tech industry, which contributed millions of dollars to his presidential campaign.

Microsoft, JPMorgan and Amazon responded to the announcement by advising employees holding H-1B visas to remain in the United States, according to internal emails reviewed by Reuters.

They advised employees on the H-1B visas who were outside the U.S. to return before midnight on Saturday (4 a.m. GMT on Sunday), when the new fee structures are set to take effect.

"H-1B visa holders who are currently in the US should remain in the US and avoid international travel until the government issues clear travel guidance," read an email sent to JPMorgan employees by Ogletree Deakins, a company that handles visa applications for the US investment bank.

Microsoft, JPMorgan, law firm Ogletree Deakins, which represents the bank on the issue, and Amazon did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Critics of the H-1B program, including many U.S. technology workers, argue that it allows firms to suppress wages and sideline Americans who could do the jobs. Supporters, including Tesla CEO and former Trump ally Elon Musk, say it brings in highly skilled workers essential to filling talent gaps and keeping firms competitive. Musk, himself a naturalized US citizen born in South Africa, has held an H-1B visa.

Some employers have exploited the program to hold down wages, disadvantaging US workers, according to the executive order Trump signed on Friday.

The number of foreign science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workers in the U.S. more than doubled between 2000 and 2019 to nearly 2.5 million, even as overall STEM employment only increased 44.5 percent during that time, it said.

May deter global talent

Adding new fees "creates disincentive to attract the world's smartest talent to the US," said Deedy Das, partner at venture capital firm Menlo Ventures, on X. "If the US ceases to attract the best talent, it drastically reduces its ability to innovate and grow the economy."

The move could add millions of dollars in costs for companies, which could hit smaller tech firms and start-ups particularly hard.

Reuters was not immediately able to establish how the fee would be administered. Lutnick said the visa would cost US$100,000 a year for each of the three years of its duration but that the details were "still being considered."

Under the current system, entering the lottery for the visa requires a small fee and, if approved, subsequent fees could amount to several thousand dollars.

Some analysts suggested the fee may force companies to move some high-value work overseas, hampering America's position in the high-stakes artificial intelligence race with China.

"In the short term, Washington may collect a windfall; in the long term, the US risks taxing away its innovation edge, trading dynamism for short-sighted protectionism," said eMarketer analyst Jeremy Goldman.

India was the largest beneficiary of H-1B visas last year, accounting for 71 percent of approved beneficiaries, while China was a distant second at 11.7 percent, according to government data.

In the first half of 2025, Amazon.com and its cloud-computing unit, AWS, had received approval for more than 12,000 H-1B visas, while Microsoft and Meta Platforms had over 5,000 H-1B visa approvals each.

Lutnick said on Friday that "all the big companies are on board" with $100,000 a year for H-1B visas.

"We've spoken to them," he said.

Many large U.S. tech, banking and consulting companies declined to comment or did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Indian embassy in Washington and the Chinese Consulate General in New York also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions, an IT services company that relies extensively on H-1B visa holders, closed down nearly 5 percent. U.S.-listed shares of Indian tech firms Infosys and Wipro closed between 2 percent and 5 percent lower