Trump administration lays out new $103K fee proposal for H-1B visas

WASHINGTON - The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a new proposed rule for H-1B visas on Monday that would charge a $103,265 fee for all workers seeking to gain employment in the U.S. who are subject to the annual statutory cap.

Notice of the proposed rule says the fee would be used for the federal government’s costs of administering the lawful immigration system, including activities carried out by the DHS and the departments of Justice, State and Labor.

“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 in a release.

The move follows a federal judge’s decision in June to strike down the Trump administration’s previously proposed $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications.

U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin ruled that it was unlawful to implement a tax on visa applications, as Congress is the only legislative body with the authority to set immigration policy and taxes.

The original proposal applied to universities, hospitals and research-based institutions; however, those employers won’t be impacted by the new fee under the DHS’s newly proposed rule.

“The administration claims the new fee will be a ‘cost recovery mechanism,’ even though the first fee led to a nearly 90 percent reduction in filings and a $28 million loss in revenue. The government itself told the court that the $100,000 fee was ‘arguably prohibitive’ and ‘does not raise revenue,'” David Bier of the Cato Institute said in a statement sent to The Hill.

“Even if it did raise revenue, that would not make it legal because immigration fees can only be imposed to recover the costs of adjudication and naturalization services. And because this is a filing fee, employers would have to pay it with no guarantee that USCIS [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] will approve the petition. Almost no one will risk more than $100,000 with no guarantee of approval,” Bier added.

The standard annual statutory limit for new H-1B visas is 85,000, which comprises the regular cap of 65,000 visas and 20,000 visas granted to applicants who hold a master’s degree or higher from a U.S. college or university. Out of the 65,000, a total of 6,800 are set aside exclusively for Chilean and Singaporean nationals.

The tech industry has been at the center of discussions surrounding H-1B visas, which allow U.S. companies to hire foreign workers in specialized, high-skill occupations.

Computer-related positions make up nearly two-thirds of all H-1B approvals, focusing heavily on software engineering, data science and IT support, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Companies and tech workers will have 30 days to comment on the proposed rule once it’s published on the Federal Register, which officials say will happen Tuesday. (Source: The Hill)