Newsman: President Trump administration has proposed a more than $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications for skilled foreign workers. The new proposal comes after the president imposed a H-1B visa fee last year that was blocked by a federal judge.
In June, a federal judge blocked Trump’s bid to impose the six-figure fee, concluding that it was an unlawful “tax” that required congressional approval.
The Department of Homeland Security revived the proposal on Monday, submitting it online in the Federal Register to be officially published on Tuesday, when a 30-day public-comment period will commence. And the administration is now proposing $103,265 for all new H-1B visa petitions.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a DHS department, said in a statement ,the payments would support “immigration programs that otherwise must be funded by taxpayers,” according to USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler.
According to Monday’s proposal, the fee would help generate revenue to fund immigration activities carried out by federal agencies including Customs and Border Protection and ICE. DHS said there may be “a reduction in the number of H-1B cap registrations and some employers, including small entities, may file fewer petitions as a result of this proposed rule.” But it concluded that the fee was “appropriate.”
President Trump first proposed payments of $100,000 as a presidential proclamation in September 2025 in an effort to prioritize American workers, and overhaul the H-1B program that allows companies and organizations to hire foreign workers for specialized, high-skill roles.
The White House has also said the fee would help curb misuse of the H-1B program, accusing U.S. employers of undercutting American workers with lower-paid foreign labor.
H-1B approvals are capped at 85,000 per year, with 20,000 spots for people with advanced degrees. Nearly 400,000 petitions, most of which were for renewal, were approved in fiscal year 2024. The majority of H-1B workers come from India, with the second-most common birthplace being China.
The proposal is part of a sweeping effort by the administration to restrict various immigration programs and make it more difficult for undocumented immigrants to get residency or asylum. In January, the State Department paused immigrant visas from 75 countries, a ban that was struck down by a federal judge on Friday.
The administration has faced multiple lawsuits by labor unions, research universities and dozens of states over the new fee, saying that it would significantly curb U.S. employers’ ability to hire global talent, decimate hospitals with already skeleton staff and upend the tech industry, which relies on foreign-born AI researchers and coders.
