DHS proposes $103,265 H-1B fee that reaches workers already in US

The Department of Homeland Security wants to charge $103,265 for every H-1B petition subject to the annual statutory cap. That figure, Bloomberg Law reported, applies to the 65,000 regular slots and to the 20,000 slots reserved for holders of U.S. master's degrees, and it can attach to foreign workers already inside the country when a new employer files a cap-subject petition for them.

Universities, nonprofit and governmental research organizations, and hospitals are exempt.

DHS arrived at the amount by dividing $8,777,488,035 in claimed government costs by 85,000 assumed annual petitions, reaching $103,264.57 and rounding to the nearest $5. About $8.8 billion in projected annual revenue would be split across agencies, with roughly two-thirds routed to USCIS and the Executive Office for Immigration Review; the proposal earmarks EOIR funding for "8,400 new positions built around immigration judge teams." USCIS says the fee "is intended to recover the costs incurred across the federal government to adjudicate, vet, and support lawful immigration programs."

The proposal follows a ruling from a federal judge in Boston who, on June 8, 2026, vacated Trump's earlier $100,000 entry-fee proclamation as an unconstitutional tax and an APA violation; the First Circuit later denied the administration's emergency bid to block that ruling. The new rule reframes the dollar amount as a cost-recovery fee and moves it from the port of entry into the domestic petition filing.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which sued over the earlier proclamation last October, warned the price would "make it cost-prohibitive for U.S. employers, especially start-ups and small and midsize businesses, to utilize the H-1B program." Federal Register publication is set for August 25, with a 30-day comment window.