The proposed 103,265 dollar H-1B fee: what the US rule says and where it stands

A proposed US rule would add an extra fee of 103,265 dollars to every cap-subject H-1B petition, on top of what employers already pay. The Department of Homeland Security published it in the Federal Register on 25 August 2026. The window for public comments closed on 24 September 2026. Our check of the Federal Register on 5 October found no final rule on this fee.

What the proposal says

DHS proposes a fee of 103,265 dollars, payable when the petition is filed, for all H-1B cap-subject petitions. That includes petitions eligible for the advanced degree exemption. It would be added to every other applicable fee and payment. DHS says the money would help recover part of what the government spends administering the lawful immigration system, including costs at the Departments of Justice, State and Labor as well as DHS.

DHS proposes to make it a separate line rather than fold it into the existing H-1B petition fee, because a standalone fee makes it easier to track and report the revenue. The proposal applies only to cap-subject petitions, not to cap-exempt filings. A correction notice followed on 10 September 2026.

The numbers DHS used

DHS projects about 85,000 cap-subject petitions a year. Multiplied by the fee, that gives roughly 8.8 billion dollars in revenue a year, by DHS's own arithmetic. It argues that employers are willing to pay a fee of this size and cites an academic analysis to say demand would not drop below 85,000 at fees above 100,000 dollars.

The Federal Register page shows 11,706 comments received at Regulations.gov. Comments are no longer being accepted. Agencies review all submissions, and a final rule, if there is one, would come after that review.

How it relates to the 100,000 dollar payment

This is separate from a payment already tied to Presidential Proclamation 10973 of September 2025, which required 100,000 dollars for certain H-1B petitions filed on or after 21 September 2025. DHS says the proposed fee is separate from that payment and rests on a different legal authority. The notice adds that the proclamation, unless extended, will expire before the proposed fee could take effect, since it covered petitions filed before 21 September 2026.

The notice reports a court order too. On 8 June 2026, a federal court in Massachusetts vacated the agency guidance implementing the proclamation payment. The government appealed on 11 June to the First Circuit, and the notice said the appeal was still pending when it was published. We have not tracked later court steps, so check current sources for the latest.

Where this leaves Indian applicants and employers

H-1B is a route that many Indian professionals and the companies that hire them follow closely, but the notice does not break its numbers down by nationality, and we have not added figures it does not contain. What it does give is a fee, a base of 85,000 petitions and a process. A final rule would have to be published in the Federal Register with a date from which it applies.

Separately, the notice recalls that a weighted selection process for cap-subject registrations took effect on 27 February 2026, before the FY 2027 cap season. That is a different change from this fee.

DHS says it also looked at registrations for the FY 2027 cap and put a technical appendix on the docket, while noting that it has yet to see the full current-year behaviour of petitioners. A final rule would show whether the amount, the scope or the start date changed after the comments.

Until a final rule appears, the 103,265 dollar figure is a proposal, not a charge. Anyone planning around it should watch the Federal Register and USCIS pages rather than rumours. This is general information, not legal advice.

Readers weighing study and work options may also want our reports on foreign university campuses being considered in Hyderabad and on a Rs 450 crore deep-tech fund at IIT Madras, both of which bear on where graduates build careers.