Department of Homeland Security to Charge $103K Fee for H-1B Visas

What happened:
DHS has issued a proposed regulation imposing a $103,265 fee on employers temporarily hiring foreign professionals for specialized, high-skill roles via the H-1B visa program. Unlike the administration’s earlier attempt, this fee would apply to nearly all new H-1B cap-subject petitions — not just applicants processing through a consulate abroad — and would have to be paid before the government even decides whether to approve the petition. (WSJ coverage)

Why this version is different:
The administration tried this once before. A September 2025 presidential proclamation imposed a similar $100,000 fee, but a federal court in Massachusetts vacated it in June, ruling that the fee functioned as an unconstitutional tax the president had no authority to impose and that the agency’s implementation violated the Administrative Procedure Act. That ruling is currently on appeal. This time, the administration is using a formal regulatory process (rather than a proclamation) and applying the fee much more broadly — to nearly anyone getting a new H-1B, not only those abroad — which appears to be an attempt to build the kind of procedural record the courts found missing the first time.

Who is exempt:
No size-based exemption — DHS explicitly rejected a small-entity carve-out (reasoning it would just incentivize restructuring to dodge the fee). The only exemption is status-based: institutions of higher education, university-affiliated nonprofits, and nonprofit/government research organizations “primarily engaged in research.” Everyone else pays, regardless of size.

Nonprofits most exposed to the fee include community health clinics, social service agencies, international aid groups, standalone biotech/science nonprofits without a university affiliation, and arts or advocacy organizations sponsoring IT, clinical, or data roles.

Why it matters for nonprofits:
Organizations that sponsor H-1B employees in specialty roles — researchers, clinicians, IT and data staff, and others — should determine now whether their petitions would fall under the cap-exempt research/education carveout or whether they’d be exposed to a six-figure fee per hire. For nonprofits without exempt status, a $103,265-per-petition cost could make sponsoring or renewing skilled foreign staff prohibitively expensive.

Related — OPT fee also under consideration: Separately, the administration is weighing a $100,000 fee on Optional Practical Training (OPT), the program that allows international students to work temporarily in the U.S. on their student visas after graduation. That proposal has not yet been formally published and remains under internal review, but it would compound the effect of the H-1B fee on nonprofits — including universities, hospitals, and research institutions — that rely on the international-student-to-skilled-employee pipeline.

Where things stand:
The H-1B fee proposal has not yet been formally published in the Federal Register; once it is, the public will have a 30-day comment period before it can take effect. The prior $100,000 fee remains tied up in litigation on appeal. PANO will share the comment period timeline once the rule is formally published, and will flag any further movement on the OPT fee proposal.

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Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay.