US proposes $103,265 fee for H-1B visa petitions

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has proposed a significant new fee of $103,265 for H-1B visa petitions subject to the annual cap. This proposed charge, which would be levied at the time of filing on top of all other existing fees, is expected to generate approximately $8.8 billion annually, based on an estimated 85,000 petitions.

According to a spokesperson for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Zach Kahler, the 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." The revenue would reportedly fund various government operations, including immigration benefit adjudication, fraud detection, national security vetting, systems modernization, and consular processing.

This new proposal comes after a federal judge in June invalidated a previous $100,000 fee proposed by the Trump administration. The judge ruled that implementing such a tax was unlawful, asserting that only Congress has the authority to set immigration policy and taxes. Notably, the earlier proposal would have affected universities, hospitals, and research institutions, which are exempt from the newly proposed DHS fee.

The H-1B visa program allows U.S. companies to hire foreign workers for specialized, high-skilled occupations, making it crucial for the technology industry. The annual limit for new H-1B visas is 85,000. Companies and tech workers will have a 30-day window to submit comments on the proposed rule once it is published in the Federal Register.

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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.