Washington, August 25, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
The Trump administration has proposed an additional $103,265 fee on employers filing cap-subject H-1B petitions, a sweeping measure that could significantly increase the cost of hiring skilled foreign workers, including professionals from India.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the proposed fee would apply to every cap-subject H-1B petition, including those filed for workers eligible under the advanced degree exemption. Employers would have to pay the fee at the time of filing, in addition to all other applicable charges.
The proposal is not yet final. It is scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on Tuesday, triggering a 30-day public comment period.
DHS estimates the fee could generate about $8.8 billion annually, based on approximately 85,000 cap-subject petitions each year.
US Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson Zach Kahler said the proposed fee is intended to recover federal costs associated with adjudicating and vetting immigration applications and supporting lawful immigration programmes.
According to DHS, the revenue would help fund immigration benefit adjudications, fraud detection, national security screening, government system modernisation and record management, as well as immigration courts, consular visa processing, labour standards enforcement and inter-agency coordination.
The fee would not apply to cap-exempt H-1B petitions filed by certain nonprofit research organisations, government research institutions and institutions of higher education.
The H-1B programme is subject to an annual cap of 65,000 visas, with another 20,000 slots available to foreign nationals holding a master’s degree or higher from a US institution.
DHS said the proposed fee would apply uniformly regardless of an employer’s size or nonprofit status. Its analysis found that 14,541 of the 28,649 organisations that filed cap-subject petitions in fiscal 2025 were small entities. The department estimated that 11,051 small organisations could face a significant financial impact from the proposal.
FWD.us President Todd Schulte criticised the proposal as a “massive tax on American businesses”, arguing that it could undermine US competitiveness for skilled talent and encourage jobs and businesses to move overseas. He also questioned the government’s legal authority to impose a fee substantially higher than the cost of processing an individual petition.
DHS, however, maintained that federal immigration law allows the government to set fees at levels sufficient to recover the full cost of immigration adjudication and naturalisation services.
The H-1B programme enables US employers to hire foreign professionals for specialised occupations, including technology, engineering, finance, medicine and research.
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