US proposes new fee of over $100,000 for H-1B visas

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has proposed imposing an additional fee of $103,265 for each H-1B petition subject to the annual quota. This must be paid by the employer submitting documents for a foreign specialist.

The new payment is not yet active: this is a draft rule published for public comment. The fee is planned to be charged at the time of submitting a petition in addition to all other required payments.

The rule will cover both the main annual H-1B quota of 65,000 slots and the additional 20,000 slots for foreigners who have earned a master's degree or higher academic degree in the United States.

However, the new fee will not apply to H-1B petitions exempt from the annual quota. This category includes, in particular, applications from institutions of higher education, some nonprofit and government research organizations.

Thus, $103,265 is not a fee directly payable by the foreign worker for obtaining the visa. The financial burden is placed on the employer-petitioner who wants to bring a specialist through the quota-bound H-1B program.

According to DHS estimates, with approximately 85 thousand such petitions per year, the new mechanism could generate about $8.8 billion annually for the federal government.

The agency explains that these funds are intended to offset part of the costs of the federal immigration system. This includes adjudication of immigration applications, fraud detection and national security checks, modernization of information systems, operation of immigration courts, consular visa processing, and enforcement of labor laws.

The proposal comes after legal problems with the previous decision of the Donald Trump administration. In September 2025, a presidential proclamation provided for a separate $100,000 payment for some new H-1B petitions. In June 2026, a federal court struck down government rules implementing this payment, after which the government filed an appeal.

DHS is now proposing to introduce the current fee through the standard federal rulemaking procedure. After the draft is published, a 30-day period for submitting comments is provided. Only after its completion and consideration of the comments received can the agency issue a final rule.

H-1B is one of the key mechanisms for attracting highly skilled foreign workers to the U.S., particularly in the technology, engineering, and financial sectors. Therefore, the introduction of a six-figure additional payment could significantly change the economics of hiring foreign specialists, especially for small and medium-sized companies.

Sources: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Federal Register, The Wall Street Journal