Donald Trump has imposed a $100,000-a-year fee to visas for skilled workers in a controversial move that is bound to infuriate Elon Musk. The executive order, set to be come into force on September 21, could see entry into the country restricted for those unable to make the hefty payment. H-1B visas, which require at least a bachelor’s degree to obtain, are designed for high-skilled jobs which companies are struggling to fill. While critics have argued that the visa is damaging to the American workforce, its supporters, including Elon Musk, have claimed that it is vital for attracting high-skilled global talent.

Trump’s new order, signed on Friday, will only be applicable for new visa requests, with the annual payment for each applicant required by companies for up to six years. A separate order signed by the US President saw the introduction of a new ‘gold card’ designed to help fast-track certain visas for those willing to ‘make a significant financial gift’ from £1million. Up to 80,000 ‘highly valuable’ gold cards are set to be readily available, with the program currently in its ‘implementation phase’, according to US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Speaking at the Oval Office, Mr Lutnick said: ‘The company needs to decide… is the person valuable enough to have a $100,000-a-year payment to the government, or they should head home, and they should go hire an American.

‘This will ensure that the people they’re bringing in are actually very highly skilled and that they’re not replaceable by American workers. ‘Stop the nonsense of just letting people come into this country on these visas that were giving away for free. The President is crystal clear: valuable people only for America.’ At present, H-1B visas come with a number of administrative fees that come to an estimated total of $1,500. Mr Lutnick insisted that he had ‘spoken’ with all of the big companies and that they ‘are on board’ with the new mandatory payment. The new fee is the latest move by the US President in the major immigration crackdown of his second term.

Explaining the new policy, Trump said: ‘The main thing is, we’re going to have great people coming in, and they’re going to be paying.’ However, Elon Musk previously vowed to go to ‘war’ with MAGA Republicans in defence of the H-1B visa program. Musk, a naturalized US citizen born in South Africa, was a previous recipient of the H-1B visa. His electric-car company Tesla also obtained 724 H-1B visas this year. The Tesla founder and billionaire’s remarks in support of the immigration visa came after pharma entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy said that American culture was to blame for its need to hire foreign workers.

‘A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math Olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian [the top student in a class], will not produce the best engineers,’ he said on X. To that, Musk responded in a tweet that has since been deleted: ‘That pretty much sums it up. This was eye-opening’. In a separate post, Musk declared: ‘The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B. ‘Take a big step back and [expletive] YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on the issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.’

In December, Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said: ‘There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture… ‘All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what we have. We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers.’ Musk, who also owns social media platform X, also faced accusations of ‘censorship’ for allegedly removing premium features from accounts criticizing his stance on the visa program for foreign tech workers. Trump has had the H-1B program in his sights since his first term in office, however he faced several court challenges to his earlier approach, which targeted the types of jobs that qualify.

During his first term as president, Trump unveiled a ‘Hire American’ policy that directed changes to the program to try to ensure the visas were awarded to the highest-paid or most-skilled applicants. In December, the President appeared to temporarily U-turn on his views, siding with technology bosses in support of the visa and telling the New York post he has ‘always liked the visas.’ ‘I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program,’ Trump said at the time. However, he has previously branded the visa as ‘very bad’ and ‘unfair’ for US workers.

The US currently awards 85,000 H-1B visas annually on a lottery system, with India understood to account for around three-quarters of these recipients. Data obtained by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) indicated that applications for the immigration visa for the upcoming fiscal year fell to around 359,000, the lowest figure in four years. Following Trump’s order, India’s leading trade body Nasscom expressed their concerns towards the hefty annual fee, insisting that technology companies would be hit hardest due to a disruption in ‘business continuity for onshore projects’. In a statement, they also said that they feared the short timeline would ‘create considerable uncertainty for businesses, professionals, and students across the world’.

Government statistics from the previous fiscal year show that Amazon was the greatest beneficiary of the programme , followed by Tata, Microsoft, Meta, Apple and Google. On Friday, Amazon, who employed nearly 15,000 workers under the visa in 2024, instructed any of its employees holding a H-1B visa to remain in the US. Those unable to return before the order takes effect were advised to avoid re-entering the country ‘until further guidance is provided’, according to an internal advisory seen by Business Insider.