DHS Proposes Stacking a New $103K H-1B Fee

The Department of Homeland Security wants to add a second six figure charge on top of an H-1B program that already carries one. A proposed rule published in the Federal Register on August 25 would impose a $103,265 fee on every H-1B cap subject petition, payable at filing, on top of all other required USCIS fees.

The fee covers petitions selected in the annual lottery, including the 20,000 slots reserved for holders of a U.S. master’s degree or higher. It would not apply to cap exempt filings, such as petitions for university or nonprofit research staff, or to transfers of an existing H-1B holder to a new employer. DHS frames the charge as “a dedicated revenue mechanism to help recover a portion of the federal government’s costs of administering the lawful immigration system,” spanning work at DHS, the Department of Justice, the State Department, and the Department of Labor. Comments are open 30 days, closing September 24.

The detail HR and legal teams need most is that DHS designed this fee to stack. It says the $103,265 charge applies on top of the existing $100,000 fee created by presidential proclamation last year, “regardless of how the litigation over the proclamation based fee is ultimately resolved.” Employers cannot wait out that court challenge and assume the cost goes away. A single cap subject hire could now carry more than $203,000 in federal fees before an employer pays a cent of salary.

For talent acquisition, sponsorship stops being a routine line item and becomes a capital allocation decision competing with headcount budget, one that will squeeze mid-size employers hardest since they lack the volume to absorb the cost the way the largest sponsors can. Sparing transfers while taxing new cap subject hires also raises the relative value of poaching talent that already holds status over sponsoring a new entrant.

Source: Federal Register