The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has proposed a fresh $103,265 fee for employers seeking to sponsor certain foreign workers under the H-1B visa programme.
According to a notice published in the Federal Register on Monday, the proposed fee would apply to H-1B petitions submitted under the programme’s annual quota, which covers 65,000 regular visas and an additional 20,000 slots reserved for foreign applicants with advanced degrees from US institutions.
The proposed charge would be paid when an employer files an H-1B petition and would come on top of existing application fees and other mandatory charges.
If implemented, the policy would dramatically increase the cost of hiring skilled foreign professionals through the H-1B programme, which is widely used by US technology companies and other employers facing shortages of specialised workers.
The proposal follows a legal setback for the Trump administration. In June, a federal district court struck down an earlier $100,000 fee imposed on H-1B visa applications.
H-1B visas, which generally allow skilled foreign workers to live and work in the US for three years, with the possibility of extension to six years, currently involve administrative fees of roughly $1,500, excluding other applicable costs.
Defending the earlier policy, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the government should prioritise American workers and graduates.
“If you’re going to train somebody, you’re going to train one of the recent graduates from one of the great universities across our land. Train Americans. Stop bringing in people to take our jobs,” Lutnick said last year.
The H-1B programme has remained a major source of tension between President Donald Trump’s administration and the US technology industry, which depends heavily on foreign professionals, including workers from Nigeria.
Government data indicate that about two-thirds of H-1B positions are in computer-related fields. The programme is also used to recruit engineers, educators, healthcare professionals and workers in other specialised occupations.
The latest proposal represents another major move by the Trump administration to tighten legal immigration rules and make it more expensive for US employers to recruit skilled workers from abroad.
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