What Trump’s $100,000 fee means for top global talent hubs

U.S. President Donald Trump’s surprise move to raise the H-1B visa application fee to $100,000 has left companies — and major economies — scrambling to make sense of the potential implications.

For some global talent hubs, particularly those in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, however, experts say it could offer a valuable opportunity.

As part of a push to protect American jobs, the Trump administration on Friday raised the application fee for skilled foreign workers. The proclamation, which came into effect on Sunday, requires companies to pay the fee to obtain the visas necessary for new employees entering the country.

Alongside financial companies, Big Tech firms have long counted on H-1B visas to fill highly skilled roles with personnel recruited from India and China, among other countries.

India, for its part, hit back at the Trump administration over the new visa fee, saying the policy “is likely to have humanitarian consequences.”

Charles-Henry Monchau, chief investment officer at Syz Group, said the newly imposed six-figure fee for H-1B visas could deliver a shot in the arm to global talent hubs seeking to attract skilled workers.

“It definitely could be painful for the U.S. in terms of innovation,” Monchau told CNBC’s “Europe Early Edition” on Monday.

He added, however, that the financial impact of the H-1B price hike appears relatively modest for Big Tech names, notably Amazon.

The U.S. e-commerce juggernaut employed by far the most H-1B holders — more than 14,000 — as of the end of June, according to the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services. Microsoft, Meta, Apple and Google, meanwhile, each had over 4,000 of the visas during the fiscal year 2025.

“It could be an opportunity for the U.K., it could be an opportunity for Europe, for locations like Dubai, for instance, or maybe China … Because obviously if the U.S. becomes more stringent, this is a golden opportunity for many of these countries to open the door to offshore experts and workers,” Monchau said.

Harry Stebbings, founder of VC fund and podcast 20VC, shares this sentiment.

“The single biggest threat to European innovation is the loss of talent,” Stebbings said Saturday in a social media post. “Trump has handed Europe the greatest opportunity.”

Stebbings called on the U.K. to give all H-1B visas a fast-track to the U.K. as part of a push to make the country a “talent magnet.”

His comments come as the U.K. reportedly looks to explore ways to abolish some visa fees for top global talent, a move that would contrast sharply with the Trump administration.

One option being considered by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is a proposal to drop visa charges for top-level professionals, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

CNBC has asked Downing Street to comment. A Home Office spokesperson told the Financial Times that the country’s global talent routes “attract and retain high-skilled talent, particularly in science, research and technology.”

Barney Hussey-Yeo, CEO of British artificial intelligence startup Cleo, on Monday described Trump’s abrupt change to the H-1B visa program as “an unprecedented opportunity” that had triggered a high volume of interest from stateside workers.

“Since the H-1B turmoil this weekend, I’ve had over 1,000 direct messages from highly skilled professionals considering leaving the U.S. — Computer Science graduates from the world’s top universities now working at elite tech companies. The calibre is exceptional,” Hussey-Yeo said in a statement.

“The U.K. should do everything possible to become the default destination for this world-class talent,” he added.

In the U.S., meanwhile, some firms have attempted to seize the initiative following the H-1B visa fee hike.

For instance, the co-founder and chief technology officer of Metaview, a San Francisco-based firm, sought to leverage the news as a hiring opportunity.

In a LinkedIn post, Metaview’s Shahriar Tajbakhsh encouraged workers to check out the firm’s careers page, saying it was “ready to move fast” to hire top talent.

“I’m seeing many companies from other countries using this as an opportunity to say, ‘Come work in country X.’ That feels a bit desperate to me,” Tajbakhsh said.

He added that for his company, “$100k is a rounding error compared to the value each member of our team creates.”

— CNBC’s Michael Considine & Yun Li contributed to this report.