(José Niño, Headline USA) Homeland Security officials unveiled a revised plan Monday requiring a $103,265 payment from employers pursuing H-1B visas for candidates counted against the annual numerical cap, according to a report from The Hill.
The official notice outlining the rule states that the collected funds would offset federal expenses associated with operating the legal immigration framework, covering activities handled by DHS alongside the Departments of Justice, State, and Labor.
USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler justified the charge in a statement, explaining that “the proposed H-1B fee is intended to recover the costs incurred across the federal government to adjudicate, vet, and support lawful immigration programs that otherwise must be funded by taxpayers.”
This revised approach arrives months after a federal judge blocked a prior version of the policy in June, one that would have set a flat $100,000 fee on H-1B applications. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin found that charging such a fee amounted to an unauthorized tax, since only Congress possesses the constitutional authority to shape immigration law and taxation policy.
Where the earlier plan swept in universities, hospitals, and research institutions, the new rule specifically exempts those categories of employers from the fee altogether.
Federal law currently caps new H-1B issuances at 85,000 per year, split between a base allocation of 65,000 and an extra 20,000 reserved for applicants who earned a master’s degree or higher from a U.S. institution. Of the 65,000 baseline visas, 6,800 remain permanently reserved for nationals of Chile and Singapore.
The program has repeatedly become a flashpoint in debates over the tech industry’s reliance on foreign labor, since it permits U.S. companies to hire skilled workers from abroad for specialized positions. Research from the Bipartisan Policy Center indicates that roughly two thirds of all H-1B approvals go toward computer focused fields such as software engineering, data science, and IT support.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
