Trump’s new H-1B fee may make life harder for grads

The Trump administration is considering a new $103,265 fee that employers may have to pay when filing cap-subject H-1B petitions, potentially impacting both foreign students and temporary visa holders already in the United States. This fee, proposed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), would be levied on employers filing H-1B petitions subject to the annual statutory cap, which includes petitions for foreign students transitioning from student status to work status after graduation.

The proposed fee would differ from the earlier $100,000 payment, which was linked to the entry of certain H-1B workers hired from outside the United States and did not cover recent college graduates or foreign nationals already in the country on H-1B status. The fee would not apply to cap-exempt H-1B petitions, such as jobs at universities, research organizations, and government research organizations.

The DHS claims the fee would help recover administrative costs related to immigration benefits, fraud detection, national security vetting, and technology modernization, potentially generating $8.8 billion annually from 85,000 cap-subject petitions. The proposal is still a proposal and must undergo a public comment process before a final rule can be implemented.