The $100,000 H-1B visa fee is impacting the U.S.'s ability to attract global talent

CBS Evening News How the White House's $100,000 H-1B visa fee is impacting America's ability to attract global talent .chip { background-image: url('/fly/bundles/cbsnewscore/images/chip-bgd/chip-bgd-evening-news.jpg'); } By Shanelle Kaul April 4, 2026 / 7:53 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Hyderabad, India — The city of Hyderabad has been called the Silicon Valley of India."Google, Facebook, and all the other bigger companies are here," Rajesh Jaknalli, who has worked for a U.S. tech company in Hyderabad for about 10 years, told CBS News."This place is actually called High Tech City, but because of the many companies that we have, the term 'Cyberabad' has come," Jaknalli explained.Jaknalli says he has worked here with one goal, to get an opportunity to one day move to the U.S."Our dream was to perform, give you 100%, and then probably, we'll get a chance to move to the U.S.," Jaknalli said.But in September 2025, the Trump administration announced that it would require that a $100,000 fee be added to new applications for H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers. The White House argued the move would protect American jobs.Prior to this, H-1B visas had ranged in cost from anywhere between $1,700 and $4,500. Hameed Abdul thought his Amazon job in Hyderabad would eventually take him to the U.S., but that outlook has changed."I got this news, and I was really devastated," Abdul said. "...It's not beneficial for any employer, to be honest. Nobody's going to hire you and give $100,000," said Abdul, who disclosed that the fee means he has "decided to move to Canada."Xavier Fernandes, who founded the immigration agency Y-Axis, says the H-1B visa created a pipeline of tech talent that eventually fueled America's IT sector."It's definitely America's loss," Fernandes said of the fee. "…Many CEOs are from Hyderabad. It's just a breeding ground of tech." According to numbers from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, more than...