The Department of Homeland Security is proposing a $103,265 fee on certain H-1B visa petitions, raising the cost for employers seeking to hire foreign workers already living in the United States.
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The draft rule, published Monday, would apply to certain H-1B workers hired from within the country, according to Bloomberg. The fee would be added to petitions filed on behalf of covered workers.
The proposal represents the Trump administration’s latest effort to tighten the H-1B program, which allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers for specialty occupations, particularly in technology and other white-collar industries.
President Donald Trump previously imposed a $100,000 fee on H-1B workers hired from outside the United States. Because that policy relied on presidential authority governing entry into the country, it did not cover foreign graduates and other prospective H-1B workers already living in the U.S.
A federal judge in Boston later struck down the $100,000 fee, finding that the administration had effectively imposed a tax without congressional authorization. The administration appealed, but the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined an emergency request to keep the fee in place while the case proceeds.
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Unlike Trump’s earlier proclamation, the new DHS proposal would exempt universities, hospitals and certain research institutions from the additional charge.
The steep fee could make it significantly more expensive for companies to hire foreign workers through the program and could encourage employers to recruit American workers instead.
The H-1B program is generally capped at 85,000 new visas annually, including 20,000 slots reserved for workers with advanced degrees from U.S. institutions.
The program has faced criticism from conservatives who argue that companies have used it to obtain less expensive foreign labor while American graduates struggle to find jobs in some of the same industries.
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