DHS Proposes $103,265 H-1B Visa Fee, Its Own Data Shows It Would Hurt 76% of Small Businesses

WASHINGTON —

The Department of Homeland Security proposed a $103,265 fee on new H-1B visas on Tuesday, and the agency's own analysis found the charge would cause significant economic harm to 76 percent of the small businesses it studied, or 11,051 companies, according to Fortune.

The fee would come on top of existing filing costs for the H-1B program, which allows companies to sponsor foreign workers in fields such as science, technology, engineering and math. It is capped at 85,000 visas a year. DHS said in the Federal Register notice, first reported by Yonhap, that the charge is meant to help cover the roughly $8.8 billion the government spends annually on immigration-related costs. Divided across the visa cap, that works out to about $103,265 per visa. Over 10 years, DHS estimates the rule would cost employers $74.9 billion.

"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," Zach Kahler, a spokesperson for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, told Fortune.

The public will have 30 days to comment on the proposal once it is formally published in the Federal Register, Yonhap reported.

A Second Attempt After a Court Loss

This is the administration's second try at a six-figure H-1B fee. President Trump signed a proclamation in September 2025 requiring a $100,000 payment for certain H-1B workers, but U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin vacated it in June. The administration appealed, and the First Circuit last month declined to let the fee take effect while that appeal continues, according to Fortune.

This time, DHS is relying on its formal fee-setting authority through standard notice-and-comment rulemaking rather than a presidential proclamation. Immigration attorney Elizabeth Ricci told Fortune that approach gives the new fee "a better chance of surviving the litigation everyone expects." But she said DHS's own reasoning is contradictory: the agency is counting on employers paying the fee even as it argues the fee's benefit is that fewer companies will sponsor workers. "Either way, the country loses talent and jobs," Ricci said.

Startups Seen as Most Exposed

Britta Glennon, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School who studies immigration and the economy, told Fortune that large companies like Amazon and Microsoft can respond to a steep fee by shifting hiring to foreign offices in places like Canada, India or China. Startups have fewer options, she said, and research shows companies that lose out on H-1B talent are less likely to patent inventions or reach a successful acquisition or public offering.

Glennon predicted the fee would push sponsorship toward senior, highly paid workers and away from entry-level hires, favoring "really big companies that can afford it." She also said the change could discourage international students from pursuing degrees in the United States if an H-1B no longer looks attainable afterward, which she said would hurt both universities and the companies that rely on those graduates.