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Washington proposes a fee of 103,265 dollars on every capped H-1B petition

By Staff Writer  |  28 August 2026

The department published the proposal on 25 August and takes comments until 24 September. It would apply to all cap-subject petitions, including those filed under the advanced degree exemption, and would sit on top of every fee that already applies.

The United States Department of Homeland Security has proposed a fee of 103,265 dollars on all H-1B cap-subject petitions. It would be payable when the petition is filed and would be charged in addition to every other fee or payment that already applies. It would cover petitions filed under the advanced degree exemption as well as ordinary cap petitions.

The department estimates the fee would raise about 8.8 billion dollars a year, on a projected volume of 85,000 cap-subject petitions. It describes the money as recovering part of the federal cost of running the lawful immigration system, and lists what it means by that: adjudication of immigration benefits, fraud detection and national security vetting, systems modernisation, records and fee collection operations, immigration court operations, consular visa processing, labour standards enforcement and coordination between departments.

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

Zach Kahler, spokesman for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services

Who it would not reach

The fee would not apply to H-1B petitions that are not subject to the annual cap. The department names certain nonprofit research organisations, governmental research organisations and institutions of higher education. The cap itself is not changed by the proposal. It remains 65,000 grants a year, with a further 20,000 for people who hold a master's degree or higher from a United States institution of higher education.

The dates that matter

The proposal was published on 25 August 2026. Written comments must be submitted on or before 24 September 2026. A proposed rule is not law. The department has to consider the comments it receives before deciding whether to issue a final rule, and a final rule can then be challenged in court, as immigration fee measures in this area have been before.

For an employer the arithmetic is blunt. The department's own numbers are 85,000 cap-subject petitions a year and about 8.8 billion dollars of revenue, which is 103,265 dollars on each petition. It sits on top of every existing fee and it falls due when the petition is filed rather than when it is approved. That converts a recruitment decision into a capital decision, and it does so at the point in the year when the capped route is the only route.

The consultation closes on 24 September. Any employer whose staffing plan for a United States office depends on the capped route has a month in which the department is obliged to read what it sends.