Trump Proposes $103,265 H-1B Visa Fee: Employers Would Pay the Cost

• H-1B Visa Fee
• Employers Would Assume the New Cost
• Measure Not Yet in Effect

The Donald Trump Administration is proposing an additional fee of $103,265 for certain H-1B applications, a measure that would drastically increase the cost of hiring foreign specialized workers.

Additionally, the payment would fall on employers who submit H-1B petitions subject to the annual cap, not directly on the beneficiary worker, according to the proposal by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The impact could be felt especially in sectors that rely on highly qualified foreign professionals, including technology, engineering, and other occupations that typically require specialized university training.

The proposal could also modify hiring decisions: DHS itself maintains that a high fee could lead employers to reconsider hiring through H-1B when a qualified American worker is available.

The Fact: Trump Proposes Charging $103,265 for Certain H-1B Visas

The H-1B program includes 65,000 visas subject to the general cap each year, in addition to 20,000 for workers with advanced degrees obtained from U.S. universities.

The new fee would apply to petitions subject to these caps, including those corresponding to the advanced degree exemption, and would be added to other applicable payments.

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DHS estimates that it could collect approximately $8.8 billion annually, based on a projected volume of 85,000 cap-subject petitions.

An important point: the proposal does not plan to apply the $103,265 fee to all annual H-1B renewals. Petitions exempt from the cap would be excluded from this new charge.

The Process: The $100,000 Fee Already Suffered a Judicial Setback

Trump had already attempted to impose a $100,000 payment for H-1B petitions through a presidential proclamation, but a federal judge in Massachusetts annulled that measure in June.

The court determined that the implementation violated the Administrative Procedure Act and exceeded the Executive’s powers used to establish the payment.

The Administration appealed and requested a stay of the decision while the litigation advanced, but the First Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that request on July 24.

Now DHS is attempting a different regulatory route: the proposal will be formally published in the Federal Register and will have a 30-day public comment period.

What Workers and Companies with H-1B Petitions Can Do

For now, applicants must be clear that the $103,265 is a proposal and not a currently effective fee under this new regulation.

Companies considering sponsoring H-1B workers should identify whether their future petitions would be subject to the annual cap and follow the regulatory process before modifying their plans.

Workers should not assume that they will have to personally pay $103,265 or that all extensions or changes related to an H-1B will be automatically subject to the charge.

The proposal thus opens another chapter in Trump’s battle to transform the H-1B program, this time using the regulatory process after the significant setback suffered in court, as detailed by ‘EFE’ and ‘El Universal‘.