WASHINGTON, D.C.—President Donald J Trump on Friday, September 19, signed a Proclamation to restrict the entry into the United States of certain H-1B aliens as nonimmigrant workers, requiring a $100,000 payment to accompany or supplement H-1B petitions for new applications. The Proclamation takes effect at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Sunday, September 21, 2025.
“The H-1B nonimmigrant visa program was created to bring temporary workers into the United States to perform additive, high-skilled functions, but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor. The large-scale replacement of American workers through systemic abuse of the program has undermined both our economic and national security,” the preamble to the Proclamation reads.
Foreign workers, starting September 21, can’t enter the U.S. on an H-1B visa unless their employer’s petition (the paperwork requesting the visa) includes an extra $100,000 payment to the federal government. This fee must be renewed and paid annually, according to United States Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will also pause decisions on H-1B petitions that don’t have the $100,000 payment—but only for workers who are currently living outside the U.S. The State Department will create guidelines to stop people with approved H-1B visas (starting work before October 1, 2026) from sneaking in early on a B-1/B-2 tourist or business visas and then switching over to H-1B visas. The goal is to prevent gaming the system, according to the Proclamation.
Possible Impacts to Washington state
H-1B visa holders refer to foreign workers authorized to work in the US in specialty occupations. Nationally, there are approximately 730,000 active H-1B holders as of early 2025.
Washington currently ranks 4th nationally for H-1B activity. The state, particularly the Seattle metropolitan area, is a major hub for the U.S. tech industry, with companies like Amazon and Microsoft relying heavily on H-1B visas to hire skilled foreign workers in fields like software engineering and AI.
The Technology Sector is an estimated $180 billion industry in Washington state with approximately 25,838 Labor Condition Applications (a metric for H-1B positions) in 2025—Amazon alone secured over 10,000 approvals and Microsoft more than 5,000. This concentration of H-1B visa holders means that Washington state could face a disproportionate effect because of the Proclamation compared to the national average.
According to the Washington Technology Industry Association, in 2022, Washington state employed some 380,000 people in the Tech Sector—approximately 10% of the state’s workforce in 2022. The Greater Seattle region is home to roughly 193,000 direct tech jobs in 2024. With a $100,000 additional price tag on new H-1B foreign workers, one can expect fewer H-1B sponsorships.
Amazon an expect an additional estimated $1 billion per year price tag; whereas, Microsoft’s cost would be approximately $500 million per year. Statewide, the Tech Sector could expect a $2.58 billion hit in additional H-1B visa sponsor costs. Firms will have to reallocate budgets, reduce Research & Development spending, or offshore jobs to lower-cost countries such as India.
While the Proclamation’s goal is to protect U.S. workers from wage suppression and job displacement, it does risk exacerbating shortages of high-skill workers in specialty fields where domestic talent is low.
This new annual $100,000 fee, per H-1B visa worker, imposed on employers could possibly even impact the housing sector as H-1B visa workers who are laid off because of this new cost burden on employers, return to their country of origin. However, college graduates and new homebuyers may benefit.
Author: Mario Lotmore
