Donald Trump’s administration is proposing a $103,265 Trump H-1B visas fee for petitions covering workers already in the US, using a DHS draft rule planned for Monday. The fee would apply to cap-subject petitions and would be added through regulation rather than the earlier entry fee order.
The draft would cover all H-1B petitions subject to the annual cap, including filings for workers with master’s degrees. DHS projects the payments would generate $8.8 billion annually, with two-thirds of the revenue allocated to US Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Executive Office for Immigration Review.
Boston ruling and appeal
The new proposal comes after a federal judge in Boston vacated President Donald Trump’s $100,000 entry fee proclamation last year. The judge found the entry fee imposed an unlawful tax without delegation from Congress, and the Trump administration has appealed that ruling.
Last month, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit denied the administration’s emergency bid to block the Boston ruling. The earlier proclamation applied to H-1B holders hired from outside the country, including new hires by universities, hospitals and research-based institutions, while the proposed in-country fee would spare those employers.
US Chamber of Commerce response
Neil Bradley, executive vice president and chief policy officer at the US Chamber of Commerce, said the proposal will make it cost-prohibitive for even more U.S. employers, especially thousands of start-ups and small and midsize businesses that rely on H-1Bs, to use the program. He also said, “The program helps companies expand, innovate, and create jobs across their operations.”
USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler said, “The proposed H‑1B fee is intended to recover the costs incurred across the federal government to adjudicate, vet, and support lawful immigration programs that otherwise must be funded by taxpayers.” DHS said the fee would help cover adjudication, fraud detection, national security vetting and systems modernization across the federal government.
H-1B program costs
The H-1B program is limited to 85,000 visa slots each year, including 20,000 reserved for advance degree holders. The new payment would sit on top of any other fee mandates if the earlier entry fee is restored, leaving employers to weigh whether to file under the cap with an added six-figure cost for workers already in the US.
That puts the immediate question on DHS: whether it finalizes the draft rule and whether employers would then face the new charge alongside any revived entry fee from the court fight over the White House proclamation.
