Trump extends H-1B fee and scrutiny on layoffs

The White House said the fee, first imposed in September 2025, has been renewed for another year. The executive order also directs the Labor Department to review prior labor condition applications within 30 days, while the State, Labor and Homeland Security departments will have to consult with Commerce, Education and the Small Business Administration when processing H-1B cases.

The administration cast the measures as a response to abuse of the visa system and the displacement of U.S. workers. The order says agencies must look at whether employers directly or indirectly cut jobs in the past year, or plan layoffs that would affect American workers in similar roles, although it stops short of automatic rejection solely because a company announced cuts.

White House figures said registrations from the largest IT outsourcing firms have fallen 92% since the 2025 proclamation, while consular processing requests are down nearly 97%. A separate Homeland Security rule using a wage-based weighting system instead of random selection was also cited by the administration as having reduced registrations by about 40% in fiscal 2027.

The policy lands hardest on companies with large Indian offshore and consulting workforces, including Accenture, Infosys and Wipro, which depend on H-1B visas to move specialized staff into U.S. client work. It also comes as the broader U.S. labor market shows rising anxiety: Adalytica’s nonfarm payrolls sentiment gauge sits in “Extreme Fear,” underscoring how sensitive investors are to anything that could slow hiring or raise costs.

Accenture shares were down about 1% to $186.11 on Monday, while Infosys and Wipro traded near $10.89 and $1.67, respectively, with all three well below their 200-day moving averages. The weak tape suggests investors are already pricing in pressure on outsourcing demand and visa-dependent staffing models if enforcement tightens further.

The next catalyst is whether agencies begin rejecting more petitions or delay processing as they apply the new review standards. That would ripple through consulting, IT services and large-cap tech hiring plans into 2027, keeping H-1B policy a live risk for companies that still depend on cross-border talent.