By Times Now Digital

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United States President Donald Trump on Friday signed a proclamation raising the annual H-1B visa fee to USD 100,000, in a move aimed at curbing abuse of the program and prioritising highly skilled foreign workers. Trump said the program would bring “truly extraordinary people” to the United States while protecting US jobs. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said companies must decide whether a worker is valuable enough to justify the new fee or hire an American instead. Lutnick also said the USD 100,000 annual fee will apply to both new H-1B applications and renewals. He explained that companies must decide whether a worker is valuable enough to justify the payment or choose instead to hire an American. H-1B visas are valid for three years and can be renewed for another three. The fee will apply to new applications and renewals, potentially reshaping hiring practices for Indian IT companies in the US. Also Read: H-1B Visas in 2025: Amazon Tops List, TCS Follows as Indian IT Firms Lead Approvals What is H-1B Visa? The US Department of Labour says, “The H-1B program applies to employers seeking to hire nonimmigrant aliens as workers in specialty occupations or as fashion models of distinguished merit and ability. A specialty occupation is one that requires the application of a body of highly specialized knowledge and the attainment of at least a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent. The intent of the H-1B provisions is to help employers who cannot otherwise obtain needed business skills and abilities from the U.S. workforce by authorizing the temporary employment of qualified individuals who are not otherwise authorized to work in the United States.” “The law establishes certain standards in order to protect similarly employed U.S. workers from being adversely affected by the employment of the nonimmigrant workers, as well as to protect the H-1B nonimmigrant workers. Employers must attest to the Department of Labor that they will pay wages to the H-1B nonimmigrant workers that are at least equal to the actual wage paid by the employer to other workers with similar experience and qualifications for the job in question, or the prevailing wage for the occupation in the area of intended employment – whichever is greater,” it adds. H-1B visas are awarded based on a lottery system. The US in recent years has changed the lottery process in a bid to reduce the ability to game its outcomes, and the Trump administration is weighing further changes to the way applications are considered, reports Bloomberg. Also Read: H-1B Visa Fee Raised To $100,000 Under Trump’s Executive Order – Here’s What Changes How to Register for H-1B: The Homeland Department of US Citizenship and Immigration Services says, “To submit an H-1B registration, you must first create a USCIS online account.” “USCIS organizational accounts allow multiple people within an organization and their legal representatives to collaborate on and prepare H-1B registrations, H-1B petitions, and any associated Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service. Registrants need an organizational account to submit registrations for the H-1B cap selection process,” it says. Step-by-Step Instructions for Applying H-1B: Tips to Avoid Common Mistakes with H-1B Electronic Registration: The top two user errors are: Creating the wrong type of account; and entering the same beneficiary more than once. Make Sure You Create the Right Type of Account There are three types of USCIS online accounts: -Applicant/petitioner/requestor account – Individuals use this type of account to prepare and file applications, petitions, or other benefit requests. You cannot use this account type to prepare or submit H-1B registrations. -Attorney/representative account – If you are an attorney or accredited representative (legal representative) submitting H-1B registrations on behalf of a prospective petitioner, select this option. You will also be able to submit Form G-28, Notice of Entry of Appearance as Attorney or Accredited Representative. -Organizational account (formerly registrant account) – This is the account that a prospective petitioner must create to participate in the H-1B registration process, even if the prospective petitioner will work with an attorney or accredited representative to submit the registration. Avoid Duplicate Entries “A prospective petitioner may only have one registration submitted per beneficiary per fiscal year. After the initial registration period has closed, if the prospective petitioner has more than one registration submitted for the same beneficiary, we will invalidate all registrations submitted for that beneficiary by that prospective petitioner, or their authorized attorney or representative, from the selection process. This does not prevent other prospective petitioners or their representatives from submitting registrations for that same beneficiary, but they too need to ensure that each of them, as a prospective petitioner, only has one registration submitted for the beneficiary,” the USCIS says. “We have added duplicate checker functionality to the electronic registration process. Before you submit your registration(s), you can check if the registrant/prospective petitioner named in the draft submission previously submitted a registration for any of the beneficiaries included in that draft submission for the same fiscal year. Using this check does not guarantee that you will not submit a duplicate. This check will compare the beneficiaries listed in the draft with any registrations previously submitted during this registration period. It will not check for duplicates within that draft or between drafts. Even if using this check function, the burden is still on the registrant and their authorized attorney or representative, if applicable, to ensure that no duplicate registrations are submitted. We also provide a tool to download a .csv file and search for duplicate entries. Also, we recommend that attorneys and authorized individuals who work for the same company coordinate to eliminate duplicates before submitting their registrations. If you discover you or your representative submitted more than one registration for the same person and the initial registration period is still open (before noon Eastern on March 24, 2025), you can go into your account and delete the extra submission(s) until there is only one registration for the beneficiary. We do not refund the fee if you delete a duplicate registration. If you discover that you or your representative submitted more than one registration for the same person and the initial registration period has closed (after noon Eastern on March 24, 2025), there is no way to correct this error. We will remove all registrations submitted for the beneficiary by, or on behalf of, that prospective petitioner from the selection process. We do not refund the fee for a removed registration,” the USCIS says. Important Dates for H-1B Registration Process:H-1B Registration Process Timeline March 7: H-1B registration period opened at noon Eastern. March 24: H-1B registration period closed at noon Eastern. March 31: Date by which USCIS notified selected registrants. April 1: The earliest date that FY 2026 H-1B cap-subject petitions based on the registrations selected during the initial FY 2026 selection period were able to be filed. Get Latest News Live on Times Now along with Breaking News and Top Headlines from US News and around the World.