US: Trump administration moves to impose over $100,000 fee on H-1B visas

The United States on Monday proposed to impose a fee of over $100,000 on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers.

The Donald Trump administration had imposed the temporary fee in September. The order is slated to expire next month, when it completes one year. The regulation proposed by the US Department of Homeland Security, which was posted in the Federal Register on Monday, would make a $103,265 fee for H-1B permanent.

The fee, however, would not apply to foreigners already in the United States on student visas or to renewals of current visas.

H-1B non-immigrant visas allow US companies to temporarily employ highly skilled foreign workers in speciality occupations. Over the past few years, Indians have constituted the majority of H-1B visa holders. Indians comprised 71% of all H-1B visas issued by the US in the financial year 2023-’24.

The programme offers 65,000 visas each year, and provides for another 20,000 visas for workers with advanced degrees. Before Trump’s order, the fees for them were between $2,000 and $5,000.

In June, a federal judge ruled that the fee for H-1B visas was illegal and blocked the US government from collecting it. An appeals court in Boston is reviewing the decision, while another court is looking into whether a judge correctly rejected a challenge to the fee by...

Read more