The special visa now facing a $100,000 fee by President Donald Trump has long been favored by Silicon Valley to attract tech workers.

On Sept. 19, Trump declared that the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program has been “deliberately exploited” to replace American workers with lower paid and less-skilled labor. To address this, Trump said he’s introducing a $100,000 application fee for companies applying for a H-1B visa, with discretion from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to exempt workers. Research shows visa workers complement American workers due to different skillsets.

While Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said all of the “big companies are on board,” H-1Bs are vital to the nation’s tech industry, and Trump's fee will likely face legal challenges. Here’s what to know about the H-1B visa.

How do people qualify for H-1Bs?

The visa category lets employers seek workers who are highly educated − at least a bachelor’s degree − to perform in “specialty occupations,” according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Before employers can file their USCIS petition, they have to show foreign workers don’t harm American workers, the American Immigration Council, a pro-immigration advocacy group, said in a 2024 fact sheet. This includes employers attesting, via the Department of Labor, that a prospective H-1B worker won’t affect wages and labor conditions of similar American workers, USCIS said. Existing workers also have to be notified of a company’s plan to hire a visa worker.

How long is the visa?

USCIS said people are usually admitted for up to three years, but it can be extended to six years. There are other options to extend the visa, such as getting an approved immigrant visa petition under employment-based categories for individuals with extraordinary abilities.

How many H-1Bs are awarded each year?

The federal government caps new H-1B visas to 65,000, with an additional 20,000 visas for people who have earned a master’s degree or higher from an American higher education institution.

The majority of H-1B approvals come from renewal applications, Pew Research Center said. Out of around 400,000 approvals in the 2024 fiscal year, nearly two-thirds are renewals.

What kind of work do H-1B workers?

Jobs tend to be concentrated in STEM fields, according to the American Immigration Council.

USCIS data showed Amazon had the most H-1B visas approved this year, with more than 10,000. Microsoft, Meta and Indian IT company Tata each had more than 5,000 visas approved, followed by Apple and Google each with more than 4,000 visas.

Scientific researchers and medical professionals are also often H-1B visa holders. The American Immigration Council notes that eight U.S. companies that would help develop COVID-19 vaccines — Gilead Sciences, Moderna Therapeutics, GlaxoSmithKline, Inovio, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals, Regeneron, Vir Therapeutics, and Sanofi — received H-1B approval for 3,310 biochemists, biophysicists, chemists, and other scientists between 2010 and 2019. In 2017, H-1B visa applicants accounted for 1.4% of all practicing physicans, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Where do people come from?

Nearly three-in-four H-1B workers come from India, according to Pew. On Sept. 20, India’s external affairs ministry said in a statement that new American fees could have “humanitarian consequences” by disrupting families.

China sends the next highest number of H-1B workers, at around 12%. The rest of the world makes up about 16% of H-1B workers.

In a Sept. 20 statement, Nasscom, a trade association for India’s tech industry, said Trump's changes can have “ripple effects” on American innovation and the wider job economy.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is an H-1B visa? Look to Silicon Valley as Trump seeks $100,000 fee

Reporting by Eduardo Cuevas, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect