The Trump administration on Monday released a proposed regulation to impose a fee of more than $100,000 on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers, moving to formally codify a charge that has already been temporarily in effect for the past year and remains tied up in federal court.
The proposed rule, posted Monday in the Federal Register by the Department of Homeland Security, would set the fee at $103,265, sharply raising costs for visas heavily relied upon across the tech, education and research sectors. It could be finalized by the end of the year.
Trump first imposed the fee on a temporary basis last year. A federal judge ruled in June that version of the fee was illegal and blocked its collection, a decision now under review by a Boston-based appeals court. A separate court is considering whether a judge properly rejected a challenge to the fee brought by a major business group. Trump’s temporary fee is set to expire in September, one year after it was first issued, adding urgency to the administration’s push to establish a permanent version through formal rulemaking.
What We Know So Far
The H-1B program allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers with specialized training, offering 65,000 general visas annually plus another 20,000 for workers with advanced degrees, approved for terms of three to six years. Fees typically ranged between $2,000 and $5,000 before Trump’s order. The new fee would not apply to foreign citizens already in the United States on student visas, who make up a large share of new H-1B recipients, nor to renewals of existing visas.
About 70 employers had paid the $100,000 fee across 85 visa applications as of late February, according to court filings. Trump invoked presidential authority under immigration law to restrict the entry of foreign nationals deemed detrimental to U.S. interests in imposing the charge.
The fee is being challenged in court by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Democratic-led states, and a coalition of unions and employers. Those lawsuits could be amended to challenge the newly proposed permanent rule once it is finalized. Plaintiffs argue that the president’s authority to restrict entry does not extend to overriding the statute that created the H-1B program, and that Homeland Security cannot impose fees or generate federal revenue without congressional approval. The administration has countered that the fee is not a traditional tax and that courts have limited power to question the president’s authority over entry restrictions.
Employer demand for H-1B visas has fallen sharply amid the broader immigration crackdown. Employers registered for about 344,000 H-1B visas last year, down more than 25 percent from 2024 and less than half the 794,000 sought in 2023, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data. The administration has separately ordered enhanced vetting of H-1B applicants and proposed a new selection process favoring higher-skilled, better-paid workers. Earlier in August, Homeland Security introduced a separate rule adding fees of up to $4,500 for H-1B extension applications and for transferring employees based overseas to U.S. positions.
What Authorities and Business Groups Are Saying
Trump and other critics of the H-1B program argue it is exploited by companies seeking to replace American workers with cheaper foreign labor. Business groups and individual companies counter that the program addresses a genuine shortage of qualified American workers in certain fields and allows U.S. employers to recruit top global talent.
Why This Matters
The proposed permanent fee represents a significant escalation of the administration’s effort to reshape skilled immigration policy, moving from a temporary measure already found unlawful by a federal court to a formal regulatory process aimed at establishing the fee on lasting legal footing. The sharp decline in visa applications since the fee’s introduction suggests it has already reshaped employer behavior well before any court has resolved its legality, raising questions about the program’s long-term role in sectors like technology and research that have historically relied heavily on H-1B talent.
The legal dispute also centers on a broader constitutional question about the limits of executive authority over immigration and revenue generation, since the plaintiffs’ core argument, that Homeland Security cannot impose fees without congressional approval, extends beyond the H-1B program itself to touch on separation of powers principles that could shape future executive actions on immigration fees more broadly.
What Happens Next
The Federal Register posting opens a formal rulemaking process that could result in the fee being finalized by the end of the year, even as related litigation over the original temporary fee continues in the Boston-based appeals court and a separate case addressing the business group’s challenge. Whether the administration can finalize the permanent rule before Trump’s temporary fee expires in September remains unclear given the pending court review.
Plaintiffs challenging the fee are expected to amend their lawsuits to target the newly proposed permanent rule once it is finalized, setting up continued legal conflict over the fee’s legality even as the rulemaking process moves forward in parallel.
Reporting drawn from Reuters and The Independent
