Washington, September 2026 : US President Donald Trump has renewed a $100,000 fee for certain H-1B visa applications and ordered federal agencies to more closely examine employers that lay off American workers while sponsoring foreign skilled professionals.
According to a White House fact sheet and an executive order, the measures combine the renewed fee requirement with additional scrutiny of companies seeking H-1B workers. Federal agencies will be required to consider recent and planned layoffs when reviewing applications under the skilled-worker visa programme.
The executive order directs the secretaries of state, labour and homeland security to examine whether employers have directly or indirectly carried out layoffs during the previous year, or are planning workforce reductions involving similarly situated US employees.
The requirement will apply during the processing of labour condition applications, H-1B petitions and visas, as well as when determining eligibility for entry into the United States. However, the order does not mandate automatic rejection of an application simply because an employer has announced layoffs.
“I have determined that continued efforts must be made to protect and prioritize the American workforce,” Trump said in the order.
Separately, the White House said a presidential proclamation had renewed the $100,000 fee requirement that was first imposed on September 19, 2025. The administration’s fact sheet said the charge applies to certain H-1B applications, but did not specify the duration of the renewed requirement or provide details on exemptions.
The executive order also gives the labour secretary 30 days to begin reviewing data from previously submitted labour condition applications. The review, to be conducted through the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, will assess whether additional action against employers sponsoring H-1B workers may be warranted.
The administration has also called for greater coordination among federal agencies while processing H-1B cases. The departments of state, labour and homeland security are required to consult the departments of commerce and education, as well as the Small Business Administration.
These agencies will provide information relating to wages, employment, academic qualifications, industry conditions and other economic factors to assist in determining whether statutory requirements are being met.
The Trump administration has presented the measures as an effort to address what it describes as the displacement of American workers and alleged misuse of the H-1B programme by certain employers and outsourcing companies.
The executive order alleged that technology companies had collectively sought H-1B visas for hundreds of thousands of workers while laying off between 800,000 and 1.3 million American employees between 2022 and 2026.
It also alleged that some employers had misrepresented job duties, working conditions or the qualifications of visa applicants. The executive order and White House fact sheet did not include responses from the employers or outsourcing companies concerning those allegations.
The White House said registrations submitted by the largest information technology outsourcing companies had declined by 92 per cent since the 2025 proclamation came into effect. It also reported a nearly 97 per cent decline in requests for consular processing.
The latest action builds on earlier changes to the H-1B programme. A Department of Homeland Security rule announced in December 2025 replaced the previous random selection system with a process weighted according to wage levels.
According to the White House fact sheet, the new system was used for the first time for fiscal year 2027, when H-1B registrations fell by nearly 40 per cent.
The measures mark a further tightening of the administration’s approach to the H-1B programme, with greater emphasis on employer hiring practices, wage levels and the potential impact of foreign-worker recruitment on the US workforce.
(Disclaimer :The content of this article is sourced from a news agency and has not been edited by the Mavericknews30 team.)
