Washington, Aug 2026 : The Trump administration has proposed a dramatic increase in the cost of hiring skilled foreign workers by introducing an additional $103,265 fee for employers filing cap-subject H-1B petitions, a move that could have significant implications for US companies and professionals from countries such as India.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the proposed fee would apply to every cap-subject H-1B petition, including applications filed under the advanced degree exemption. Employers would have to pay the amount when submitting their petitions, in addition to all other existing government fees and payments.
The proposal is not yet final. It is scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on Tuesday, after which a 30-day period will begin during which members of the public, businesses and other stakeholders can submit comments before the administration decides whether to implement the measure.
According to DHS estimates, the new fee could generate approximately $8.8 billion annually, based on an expected 85,000 cap-subject H-1B petitions each year.
US Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson Zach Kahler said the proposed fee was intended to help recover costs incurred by the federal government in processing, screening and administering legal immigration programmes.
The administration said the revenue would help finance several immigration-related activities, including adjudication of immigration benefits, fraud detection, national security screening, modernisation of government systems and maintenance of immigration records.
Funds generated through the proposed charge would also support immigration courts, consular visa processing, labour standards enforcement and coordination among federal agencies. DHS said the money could contribute toward activities conducted by USCIS, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Justice Department’s immigration courts, the State Department and the Department of Labor.
However, the proposed fee would not apply to cap-exempt H-1B petitions filed by certain non-profit research organisations, government research institutions and institutions of higher education.
The H-1B programme currently has an annual statutory allocation of 65,000 visas, along with an additional 20,000 places for foreign nationals who have earned a master’s degree or higher from a US institution.
DHS said the proposed fee would be applied uniformly, regardless of whether an employer is a large corporation, small business or non-profit organisation. Its analysis showed that 14,541 of the 28,649 organisations that filed cap-subject petitions during fiscal year 2025 were small entities.
The department estimated that 11,051 small organisations could experience a significant financial impact from the proposed regulation, accounting for about 76 per cent of the small entities included in its analysis.
The proposal has already drawn criticism from business and immigration advocacy groups. FWD.us President Todd Schulte described the proposed charge as a “massive tax on American businesses” and argued that it could weaken the country's ability to attract highly skilled international talent.
Schulte warned that additional restrictions on legal immigration could make the United States less competitive globally, potentially encouraging businesses and jobs to move overseas. He also questioned whether the government has the legal authority to impose a charge substantially higher than the actual cost of processing an H-1B petition.
DHS defended its position, maintaining that federal immigration law allows the government to establish fees at levels designed to recover the costs of immigration adjudication and naturalisation services. The department also argued that employers filing cap-subject H-1B petitions are generally better positioned to absorb the additional cost than individual immigration applicants.
The H-1B programme is widely used by US companies to recruit foreign professionals for specialised occupations requiring advanced knowledge and expertise. Major users of the programme include companies and organisations in technology, engineering, finance, healthcare, medicine and research.
If implemented, the proposed fee could significantly alter the economics of H-1B hiring and potentially influence employers’ decisions about recruiting international professionals, including the large pool of highly skilled Indian workers who rely on the programme to pursue careers in the United States.
(Disclaimer :The content of this article is sourced from a news agency and has not been edited by the Mavericknews30 team.)
