On Friday, President Trump signed a presidential proclamation to sharply raise the cost of employing H-1B workers by restricting entry unless employers make a $100,000 payment with the petition.

The "Restriction on entry of certain nonimmigrant workers" [1]proclamation accuses companies of abusing the existing visa program by hiring H-1B staff while laying off domestic workers and, in some cases, having staff train their replacements. It restricts the entry of H-1B workers unless the employer pays $100,000 with the petition, and directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to restrict decisions on petitions for beneficiaries outside the US if the payment isn’t made, with exemptions possible. The policy takes effect on September 21, and lasts 12 months unless extended.

The proclamation cites unnamed tech companies for hiring H-1B workers while conducting layoffs. While not explicitly named, in FY2025, Amazon has had over 10,000 H-1B approvals – and it is [2]not alone – Microsoft and Meta each have more than 5,000, and Google more than 4,000. All three companies [3]have [4]conducted [5]layoffs in 2025.

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The proclamation also claims that there's a homeland security issue with the visa, saying that foreign companies use the scheme to engage in "visa fraud, conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and other illicit activities."

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There is a significant caveat, however. Some lucky tech firms will be granted an exemption from the new rules "if the Secretary of Homeland Security determines, in the Secretary’s discretion, that the hiring of such aliens to be employed as H-1B specialty occupation workers is in the national interest and does not pose a threat to the security or welfare of the United States."

"It'll annoy the tech industry but the big tech companies have more money than God," Ron Hira, associate professor at Howard University's department of political science and a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, told The Register . "I think it'll hit the outsourcers more than probably those firms."

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The Department of Labor will lead the enforcement of the proclamation, in what it's dubbing Project Firewall. The rules on salaries for foreign workers will be strictly enforced to make sure that no US worker has their wages undercut by an incomer, it said.

"Launching Project Firewall will help us ensure no employers are abusing H-1B visas at the expense of our workforce," [10]said US Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer. "By rooting out fraud and abuse, the Department of Labor and our federal partners will ensure that highly skilled jobs go to Americans first."

[11]US signals intention to rethink job H-1B lottery

[12]Uncle Sam claims H-1B fraud crackdown is working as registrations drop 25%

[13]Cognizant discriminated against non-Indian workers in H-1B visa case, US jury finds

[14]H-1B visa fraud alive and well amid efforts to crack down on abuse

Congress started the H-1B scheme with the Immigration Act of 1990 as an effort to plug a gap in America's technology workforce and allow highly skilled foreign workers to come into the country, and bring their families with them. Now foreign workers [15]make up nearly 20 percent of the US STEM workforce, and a much higher percentage in Silicon Valley.

Employers love the scheme, Professor Hira said, since it essentially provides indentured workers who face the prospect of being deported if their employer lets them go. While wage levels are supposed to be equal to local salaries, the same doesn't apply to overtime, he pointed out, and companies have become adept at gaming the salary scheme by reclassifying job positions.

Outsourcing companies such as Tata, which had the second-highest number of H-1B petition approvals in FY2025 with 5,505, are going to be hit hardest by the proclamation, unless they are friends with the Secretary of Homeland Security. Such firms, including Infosys (2,004 visas granted) and Wipro (1,523), are renowned for filing massive numbers of H-1B requests and fitting in workers for even relatively low-skilled jobs. Such a high fee level, if enforced, could kill that market dynamic. ®

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[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/restriction-on-entry-of-certain-nonimmigrant-workers/

[2] https://www.uscis.gov/tools/reports-and-studies/h-1b-employer-data-hub

[3] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/10/meta_to_toss_5_of/

[4] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/25/microsoft_ceo_job_cuts/

[5] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/comprehensive-list-2025-tech-layoffs-134836336.html

[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aM4m3Mks6tCCJumNrlUUYwAAAEc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

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[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aM4m3Mks6tCCJumNrlUUYwAAAEc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[10] https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/osec/osec20250919

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/20/h_1b_job_lottery/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/15/h1b_applications_droped/

[13] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/09/us_jury_cognizant_case/

[14] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/09/h1b_visa_fraud/

[15] https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsb20245/foreign-born-stem-workers

[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/