Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee won’t hit doctors, White House signals relief: Report

The White House said Monday that physicians and medical residents could be exempt from the Donald Trump administration’s surprise move to impose a $100,000 application fee for high-skilled H-1B visas.

The clarification comes after Trump’s Friday proclamation stunned the tech industry and foreign students, sparking fears among hospitals and medical groups that the steep fee would choke off a vital pipeline of international doctors.

“The Proclamation allows for potential exemptions, which can include physicians and medical residents,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told Bloomberg News in an email.

Doctors had warned the policy would worsen the US physician shortage, particularly in rural and underserved areas. “This risks shutting off the pipeline of highly trained physicians that patients depend on,” said American Medical Association President Bobby Mukkamala, a Michigan head and neck surgeon.

More than 76 million Americans live in federally designated areas with a shortage of primary care doctors, according to health research group KFF. Hospitals and health care employers often rely on the H-1B visa program to recruit medical residents and specialists willing to serve in such regions.

Trump has argued that companies misuse the H-1B system to undercut American workers, calling it a security concern. But for US health care, international medical graduates remain “a critical part of our physician workforce,” Mukkamala said.