President Donald Trump used his Labour Day proclamation on 7 September to endorse a proposed $103,265 fee on cap-subject H-1B visa petitions, framing the measure as an incentive for American companies to invest in domestic talent before recruiting abroad.
The fee was first proposed by the Department of Homeland Security on 25 August through the federal rulemaking process. It would apply to all H-1B petitions subject to the annual numerical cap and would be payable at the time of petition filing, on top of existing government fees that typically run between $2,000 and $5,000.
The proposed rule is broader in scope than an earlier $100,000 entry fee imposed by presidential proclamation in September 2025, which a federal district court struck down on 8 June 2026. That earlier measure applied only to new petitions from workers outside the US; the current proposal would cover cap-subject petitions filed domestically as well.
Employers exempt from the annual cap including universities, government research organisations, and certain nonprofits, would not be subject to the fee. Private employers of any size, including small businesses and private hospitals, would be.
The fee has not yet taken effect. A 30-day public comment period is open, and the rule could be finalised later this year. Employers are not currently required to pay the $103,265 amount on the basis of Trump's Labour Day statement alone.
Indian nationals have historically accounted for around three-quarters of approved H-1B visas each year, making the proposal particularly consequential for Indian technology workers, engineers, and the IT firms that place them on-site in the US. Analysts have suggested that the added cost could accelerate a shift toward offshore delivery and local US hiring by Indian IT companies.
The US Chamber of Commerce has previously challenged the administration's H-1B fee measures in court, and similar legal scrutiny of the new proposed rule is widely anticipated.
