US Commerce Secretary signals 'significant' number of H-1B visa changes before 2026

New York/Washington: US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said there will be “a significant number of changes” in the H-1B visa process before February 2026, when the new fee of USD 100,000 goes into effect, as he described as “just wrong” the idea of “inexpensive” tech consultants coming into the country and bringing their families.

The Trump administration this month announced a one-time fee of USD 100,000 for new H-1B work visas, an order that will impact Indian professionals looking to work in the US on the temporary visas.

Standing behind US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office when the H-1B proclamation was signed, Lutnick had then said that the USD 100,000 will be an annual fee for all H-1B visas, including renewals and first-time applicants.

Amid widespread panic and chaos, the Trump administration clarified that the new fee requirement for H-1B visas will not apply to current visa holders and is a one-time payment applicable only to new petitions.

“This procedure and process goes into effect in February of 2026, so my guess is going to be, there are going to be a significant number of changes between now and 2026,” Lutnick said Sunday in an interview with NewsNation.

Lutnick said that with the USD 100,000 fee on applications, "at least it shouldn't be overrun with these people. But I think you're going to see a real thoughtful change going forward. And that's what I expect will happen."

"There's going to be a variety of changes; they're talking about changes - how to get the lottery, should it still be a lottery? But that will all be resolved by February,” he said.

He said that “but as of right now”, there's going to be a one-time fee of USD 100,000 to get in.

“There was a lottery. The H-1B is a lottery,” he said, adding that in his recent conversation with heads of two of the biggest tech companies in the world, “they said doing a lottery for skilled workers coming into America is 'bizarre'.”

Lutnick questioned why a nation should bring in skilled workers through a lottery. “That just doesn't make any sense.”

He said there is consensus that the H-1B process, which was set up in 1990 and “sort of butchered along the way”, needs to change.

He said the visas are 7-10 times “oversubscribed”, 74 per cent of it is tech consulting.

“H-1B visas are for tech consultants? Like, somehow, that's like important that tech consultants are onshore versus offshore. They're all in other countries anyway,” he said, adding that about four per cent of the visas were for educators and doctors.

He added that the H-1B lottery needs to be “fixed" and the US should only give "highly-skilled jobs" to the "most highly-skilled people".

Lutnick said doctors and educators with high degrees should be able to come in but if companies want to hire engineers, they should employ only the highly paid ones.

“The idea of having tech consultants and trainees who are inexpensive should be eliminated. I have a strong opinion that way. I think the President's right with me on those same topics...I am completely on the view that this idea that inexpensive tech consultants should be coming into this country and bringing their families, I find it just wrong, and so it sits wrong with me,” Lutnick said.

This month, the US Department of Labour announced the launch of ‘Project Firewall’, an H-1B enforcement initiative aimed at safeguarding the rights, wages, and job opportunities of highly skilled American workers.

The initiative will ensure that employers prioritise qualified Americans when hiring workers and will hold employers accountable if they abuse the H-1B visa process.

“Launching Project Firewall will help us ensure no employers are abusing H-1B visas at the expense of our workforce,” US Secretary of Labour Lori Chavez-DeRemer had said in a statement. “By rooting out fraud and abuse, the Department of Labour and our federal partners will ensure that highly skilled jobs go to Americans first.”

Through Project Firewall, the department will conduct investigations of employers to maximise H-1B programme compliance. To achieve this goal, the Secretary of Labour will “personally certify the initiation of investigations” for the first time in the department’s history.

Violations may result in the collection of back wages owed to affected workers, the assessment of civil money penalties, and/or debarment from future use of the H-1B programme for a prescribed period of time.