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Alsharq Tribune- World News
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed a proclamation to impose a yearly fee of US$100,000 for an H-1B nonimmigrant visa application for a highly skilled foreign worker, as his administration seeks to ensure tech firms help train Americans rather than bringing in foreign workers.
The fee is expected to put a burden on Korean companies that need to bring their skilled workers into the United States on a stable visa program to set up and run factories in the U.S. to proceed with their investment projects.
The current fee for the H-1B visa is $1,000. The visa is meant for skilled professionals, especially in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math, with its program subject to an annual worldwide cap of 85,000 visas.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick elaborated on the fee for an H-1B visa -- a three-year visa with one renewal that could last a total of six years -- as he called for tech companies to train Americans and stop bringing in foreign workers to take American jobs.
"The whole idea is no more will these big-tech companies or other big companies train foreign workers. They have to pay the government $100,000, then they have to pay the employee. So it's just not economic," Lutnick said, standing next to Trump during a press availability at the White House.
"If you're going to train somebody, you're going to train one of the recent graduates from one of the great universities across our land, train Americans, stop bringing in people to take our jobs. That's the policy here. $100,000 a year for H-1B visas," he added.
The secretary clarified that the fee for the visa is on an annual basis, saying that companies need to decide if the worker that they want to bring to the U.S. is "valuable enough" to pay that amount to the U.S. government.
"The whole idea (is) it's annual, and it can be a total of six years ... so $100,000 a year. So either the person is very valuable to the company and America, or they're going to depart and the company is going to hire an American," Lutnick said.
"That's the point of immigration -- Hire Americans and make sure that people coming in are the top people. Stop the nonsense of letting people just come into this country on these visas that were given away for free. The president is crystal-clear. Valuable people only for America."
The visa fee proclamation came in the midst of South Korea's ongoing efforts to address visa-related issues for skilled professionals, following a recent U.S. immigration raid at a Korean plant construction site in Georgia that led to the arrest of more than 310 Korean nationals.
The raid has raised questions over whether the Trump administration's push to attract foreign investments conflicts with its immigration policy.
Separately, Trump signed an executive order on the "Gold Card" program that would authorize an alien, who makes an "unrestricted gift" to the Commerce Department, to establish eligibility for an immigrant visa using an expedited process.
The requisite gift amount will be $1 million for an individual donating on his or her own behalf, and $2 million for a corporation or similar entity donating on behalf of an individual, according to the document.
