The End of H-1B

Everyone could see it coming: the H-1B program was never going to survive in its old form. The abuse was too widespread, the gap between the program and its real purpose too obvious, and the damage to American and foreign workers alike too unfair. On September 19, 2025, President Donald J. Trump finally pulled the plug: under a White House proclamation, new H-1B petitions now carry a fee of $100,000. The message is clear: the golden age of "cheap skilled labor" on H-1B visas is over. (As of August 2026: the $100,000 fee is the subject of ongoing litigation and has not been finally settled.)

1A program riddled with abuse

H-1B status was originally created to bring highly skilled professionals into the country when they simply weren't available in the US. But the reality had long been very different:

• Outsourcing firms such as Tata, Infosys, Wipro and Cognizant flooded the lottery every year with tens of thousands of petitions.

• American employees in some cases even had to train their own H-1B replacements, often under non-disclosure agreements.

• Wages were pushed down: by gaming the "prevailing wage" rules, an H-1B programmer in California could cost 30 to 40% less than an American colleague.

• Dependence instead of freedom: H-1B workers are tied to their sponsor. Lose your job and you have just 60 days to leave the country or find a new sponsor. That kind of dependence makes exploitation easier.

In its proclamation, the White House openly speaks of a "threat to national security" and documents that the share of H-1B holders in IT has risen from 32% (2003) to over 65% in recent years. Meanwhile, unemployment among American IT graduates climbed above 7%, twice as high as in other fields.

2Trump's hard cut: $100,000 per petition

With the new proclamation, President Trump pulls off the impossible: he closes the floodgates without formally abolishing the program. Anyone filing an H-1B petition from now on has to pay an additional fee of 100,000 dollars.

That means:

• Large outsourcing firms lose their business model. No employer will pay a 100,000-dollar fee for an Indian programmer set to earn 70,000 dollars a year in the US.

• Startups and mid-sized companies are out too. If you want to hire a developer for 60,000 dollars, you won't add 100,000 dollars on top.

• Only Big Tech (Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple) and a few highly specific cases in the "national interest" will be left.

That shrinks the H-1B program to a handful of exceptional talents. Mass migration via H-1B is history.

3Examples of the abuse

The White House cites specific cases that are fueling public anger in America:

• One company received 5,189 H-1B approvals in 2025 while laying off 16,000 American employees.

• Another filed for 1,698 H-1Bs but laid off 2,400 workers in Oregon in July.

• A third company has cut 27,000 US jobs since 2022 while filing 25,075 H-1B petitions.

• Yet another cut 1,000 jobs in February despite receiving more than 1,100 H-1B approvals.

This gap between a supposed skills shortage and real job cuts shows why the reform had to be so drastic.

4The nationalities behind H-1B visas

For decades, the H-1B program was practically a one-way street:

• Over 70% of all H-1B visas went to Indian nationals.

• Another 10 to 15% went to China.

• The rest was spread across countries such as Canada, South Korea, the Philippines, the UK and Germany, each in the low single digits.

The picture was clear: H-1B was first and foremost an India program. Entire careers, even entire business models of Indian outsourcing giants, were built on sending tens of thousands of IT professionals to the US every year. For European professionals, on the other hand, H-1B never played a significant role: the odds were too slim, India's dominance too strong.

5The big winners: outsourcing giants and Big Tech

A look at the numbers shows who benefited most from H-1B (2024):

• Amazon: 9,300 visas

• Infosys: 8,100 visas

• Cognizant: 6,300 visas

• Google: 5,400 visas

• Tata Consultancy Services: 5,300 visas

• Meta: 4,800 visas

• Microsoft: 4,700 visas

• Apple: 3,900 visas

That's almost 50,000 visas for just eight companies, more than half the annual H-1B cap.

What really stands out: the biggest winners were not just American tech giants like Amazon, Google and Microsoft, but also Indian outsourcing heavyweights like Infosys, TCS and Cognizant. These companies have been under fire for years. They flood the lottery with huge numbers of applications, secure a disproportionate share of the visas and then place the workers with US companies, often on terms far below the US market wage.

👉 These two factors, India as the dominant nation and Big Tech plus outsourcing firms as the main beneficiaries, explain why President Trump went after this program. It had long stopped serving its purpose of attracting the "best and brightest" from around the world and had become a one-way street for cost-cutting and mass import of labor.

6What this means for European entrepreneurs

Our clients are generally not Indian outsourcing firms. They use the US for expansion, investment and internationalization. For them, H-1B visas were never the first choice anyway. Instead, we focus on other, far more solid and transparent categories:

• E-1 (Treaty Trader visa) for entrepreneurs who can show substantial trade between the US and their home country.

• E-2 (investor visa) for investors who put a substantial investment into their own US business and run it actively. There is no fixed minimum amount.

• L-1 (intracompany transfer) for managers or specialists sent by a foreign company to its US subsidiary.

• EB-5 (investor green card) for investors who put at least 800,000 dollars into US jobs and gain permanent residence directly.

These programs are not affected by the proclamation. They have always been built around lasting substance and real value creation in the US, not the mass import of cheap labor.

7A shift in the tech sector

To understand why the H-1B program no longer fits our times, you have to look at the fundamental shift in the US tech sector.

The last five years have changed everything:

• Pandemic over-hiring. From 2020 to 2022, tech companies hired on a massive scale, convinced that digital demand would keep exploding. When the market normalized, mass layoffs followed.

• Artificial intelligence. Entire fields of work (from programming and data entry to copywriting) are now being automated. Jobs are disappearing faster than universities can turn out new graduates.

• Too many graduates, too few jobs. Computer science is seen as a "safe career path". In truth, the job market is saturated, and unemployment among young IT graduates is now higher than in some humanities fields.

• Remote culture since COVID. The pandemic changed attitudes for good: if half the team works from home in Seattle, why not have the other half in Bangalore or Manila? For collaboration, it hardly makes a difference.

The result is a paradox. On the one hand, H-1B has become a relic of the past: a product of the era when Silicon Valley believed it couldn't compete without a mass influx of engineers. On the other hand, you have to ask whether Indian H-1B workers are really the main problem for American tech jobs. Perhaps it is the effects of AI, remote work and an oversupply of graduates that truly threaten the job market for young Americans.

8A "hard reset" that sends a signal

Here is another way to look at it: the end of the old H-1B is a liberating move.

• American workers get a fair shot at fair wages again.

• Reputable companies can no longer rely on cheap labor and have to make real investments instead.

• Foreign entrepreneurs now have clearer rules: if you really want to gain a foothold in the USA, you have to invest, trade or build your company there, not take detours and exploit loopholes.

The H-1B program was a patchwork of exceptions, loopholes and room for abuse. The clean cut brings clarity.

9New opportunities for European investors and entrepreneurs

For our clients, the reform means one thing above all: more fairness and better predictability.

If you want to build a business in the USA, you have excellent options even without the H-1B. With E-2, L-1 or EB-5, the door stays wide open, just not for business models built on cheap labor, but for entrepreneurs with substance and vision.

President Trump has changed course: instead of bringing in cheap labor, America now wants genuine investors, trading partners and innovators. That is exactly where our clients shine.

10A consultation with Mount Bonnell Advisors

If you are an entrepreneur, investor or manager from Europe looking at the USA as your new base, we guide you every step of the way:

• Identifying the right visa category (E-1, E-2, L-1, EB-5).

• Structuring your investment and business activities in the USA.

• Support with your application and communication with the US authorities.

• Long-term tax and residence planning.

Contact us today to book your personal consultation.

To find out what happened to the fee in court, read H-1B: the $100,000 fee goes to court and H-1B fee struck down. Our pages on the E-2 investor visa and the L-1 visa explain the alternatives.

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