The Trump administration has announced a proposal to impose an additional fee of $103,265 on employers who file H-1B visa petitions that are subject to the annual cap. This move, if enacted, could substantially raise the expenses associated with hiring skilled foreign workers, particularly affecting professionals from India and other countries seeking employment in the United States.
DHS Proposes Fee for H-1B Visa Applications
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced a proposal for a new fee that would affect all cap-subject H-1B visa petitions. This includes applications from workers who qualify under the advanced degree exemption.
This proposal is not yet finalized; it is expected to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday. Following this publication, there will be a 30-day public comment period during which stakeholders can provide feedback.
Earlier reporting noted: For Indians in the US, two new $100,000 walls may be coming up: What H-1B visa and OPT fees could mean The Trump administration on Monday published a proposed regulation that would charge American employers $103,265 for every new H-1B petition subject to the annual visa cap, reviving in a different form a fee that a US court had struck down in June. Earlier reporting noted: And DHS is separately weighing a $100,000 charge – a third in the US of this scale – on Optional Practical Training (OPT), the post-graduation work programme that has long been the bridge between an American degree and an H-1B or other work visas for foreign students, The Wall Street Journal initially reported.
Zach Kahler, a spokesperson for US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), said the proposed fee aims to recover federal government costs involved in processing, screening, and supporting legal immigration programmes that are otherwise funded by taxpayers. The money would help cover expenses related to immigration benefit processing, fraud detection, national security screening, government system upgrades and record management, according to DHS. The department said the funds would help cover immigration-related work carried out by USCIS, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Justice Department’s immigration courts, the State Department and the Department of Labor.
Earlier reporting noted: The proposal is in addition to other measures already in motion or being planned by the US government.
DHS defends proposed fee
DHS, however, maintained that federal immigration law allows the government to set fees at levels that recover the full cost of immigration adjudication and naturalisation services.
FWD.us President Todd Schulte criticised the proposal, calling it a “massive tax on American businesses” and arguing that it was part of a wider effort to weaken legal immigration.
