The UK may cut Global Talent visa fees to attract skilled workers.
Nvidia President and CEO Jensen Huang and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman weighed in on US President Donald Trump’s recent decision to sharply raise visa costs for foreign workers. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang expressed excitement that the administration is making significant decisions around immigration to acquire the brightest minds in the state.
Huang noted: “We represent the American Dream. And so I think immigration is really important to our company and is really important to our nation’s future, and I’m glad to see President Trump making the moves he’s making.”
Trump announced plans to increase the H-1B visa fee to $100,000, prompting companies to scramble and reassess their hiring strategies. Under the new rules, employers must provide proof of payment before filing an H-1B petition on behalf of a worker.
Additionally, the White House highlighted that applicants will be exposed to several restrictions on their appeal for 12 months until the payment is completed.
During an interview, Huang and Altman shared their views on Trump’s recent decision to raise the cost of hiring foreign workers on visas. While commenting on the topic of discussion, they mentioned that Nvidia intends to make a $100 billion investment in OpenAI as the AI lab aims to use Nvidia’s AI processors in constructing data centers worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Following these investment plans, Huang stated that they required all the brightest minds existing to come to the US, urging that immigration is a key aspect of the American Dream. “We embody the American Dream,” he added.
Like Nvidia’s CEO, Sam Altman was also pleased with President Trump’s new decision. To support this claim, the CEO shared an optimistic view about these changes, stating that they now need to attract the smartest individuals in the country and simplify this process while offering financial rewards.
When comparing the new $100,000 H-1B visa fee to the previous one, the previous one ranged between $2,000 and $5,000 for each application based on how huge a firm was, according to reports from the Immigration Law Group.
Concerning these changes, analysts have projected that the new $100,000 fee will greatly affect the tech sector and finance industries located in the US. This is because they highly depend on the H-1B program for qualified personnel, especially those from India and China.
These two countries contributed 71% and 11.7% of visa holders in 2024, respectively.
In the meantime, reports from reliable sources have highlighted that individuals who already possess H-1B visas and are currently in foreign lands will not be required to pay this fee to return.
The sources also revealed that many firms prefer to hire H-1B workers to occupy important technical jobs that they feel are hard to locate among American employees.
Still, the UK is taking advantage of the situation and may stop charging visa fees for in-demand workers to attract overseas talent and boost its economy.
In-demand professionals often apply for the UK’s Global Talent visa, which costs £766 ($1,034) per applicant. Each partner or dependent child must also pay the same fee, meaning the total expense for a family can easily run into several thousand pounds. On top of that, every applicant is required to pay an annual health surcharge of £1,035 to access healthcare services.
Introduced in 2020, the Global Talent visa is designed to attract elite workers in fields such as digital technology, engineering, medicine, and science. By contrast, most other foreign employees apply for the Skilled Worker visa, which ranges in cost from £625 to £1,423, depending on the role and salary level.
The Prime Minister now believes the time may be right to waive all fees for Global Talent visas. The move comes just days after US President Donald Trump imposed a hefty $100,000 fee for America’s H-1B visas, a change expected to deter elite recruits considering jobs at US tech companies.
“Trump’s decision had put wind in the sails of those wanting to reform Britain’s high-end visa system to boost growth ahead of the Nov 26 budget,” the source said.
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