DHS Proposes $103,265 Fee for H-1B Cap-Subject Petitions

The Department of Homeland Security is proposing an additional $103,265 filing fee for all H-1B cap-subject petitions, including those eligible for the advanced degree exemption.

Under the proposal, posted for public inspection in the Federal Register, the fee would be due when the petition is filed and imposed in addition to all other applicable fees or payments. DHS estimates it would generate about $8.8 billion annually from a projected 85,000 cap-subject petitions.

The department said the revenue would recover part of the federal government’s costs for administering the lawful immigration system. Those costs include immigration benefit adjudication, fraud detection and national security vetting, systems modernization, records and fee collection operations, immigration court operations, consular visa processing, labor standards enforcement and interagency coordination.

“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,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson Zach Kahler said.

The additional fee would not apply to petitions exempt from the H-1B cap. Those include petitions filed by certain nonprofit research organizations, governmental research organizations and institutions of higher education.

Cap-subject H-1B visas, or grants of status, are limited to 65,000 annually, with an additional 20,000 available to people who earned a master’s or higher degree from a U.S. institution of higher education.