Trump’s empty boast around H-1B visa fee

True reform would have addressed the green-card backlog. But the US's message that foreign talent is expendable has reversed brain drain, which benefits India

- Vivek Wadhwa

The headlines screamed disaster. Donald Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee was supposed to crush Indian dreams. Immigration lawyers sounded the alarm, the Indian media fumed, and social media erupted over the fate of Indian engineers who built America’s tech future.

Then came the fine print. The rule applies only to new H-1B petitions filed for people outside the US or a few status changes. It doesn't affect the hundreds of thousands already there or most renewals. In reality, it changes almost nothing. It was another Trump taco — a policy built to roar, not to reform.

That was a relief, but also revealing. The fee turned out to be a toothless tiger, yet its roar did real damage. It showed once again that Washington has traded policymaking for performance. America’s message to global talent was unmistakable: You can work here if you pay, but don’t ever expect to belong. Anti-immigrant groups cheered the $100,000 fee as a great victory, waving it like a trophy. In truth, they were celebrating an illusion — a loud, empty gesture that fixed nothing and fooled many.

Tech companies didn’t complain for long. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta can afford the cost. What mattered to them stayed untouched — the decades-long green-card backlog that keeps foreign engineers dependent, the golden handcuffs that make the system work in their favour. The H-1B visa was meant to attract talent; instead, it traps it. A worker waiting for a green card cannot easily change jobs or start a company. For many Indians, the wait can stretch beyond 50 years. The result is modern day indentured servitude — legal, efficient, and deeply profitable for employers.