Yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking implementing a $103,265 fee for cap subject H-1B petitions for federal fiscal year 2028. This is the Trump Administration’s second attempt to levy a six-figure fee on H-1B visas. On June 8, 2026, the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts struck down the Trump Admiration’s previous $100,000 H-1B visa fee, holding that it was a tax not authorized by Congress.
There are some key differences between the enjoined $100,000 H-1B visa fee and the new $103,265 fee. The first one is the amount. The District Court found that the prior visa was a tax because the Trump Administration used its powers to restrict entry to the United States to implement the fee, and that the amount of the fee was a made-up number, untethered to reality. The new $103,265 fee draws on DHS’ powers to collect fees to fund its operations. While USCIS’ operations are generally self-sustaining, the new fee purports to raise $8.7 billion in revenue to replace funds appropriated by Congress for asylum-related operations.
The second big change is the scope of the fee. The old $100,000 H-1B fee was assessed against any H-1 petition that required a visa to be issued abroad. Foreign nationals presently in the United States seeking to extend H-1B status or change to H-1B status were exempt from the fee. The new $103,265 fee applies to all cap subject H-1B petitions, regardless of the location of the foreign national...
White House border czar Tom Homan fired back on Sunday's "State of the Union" after Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., accused U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") of targeting parents at sch...