Universities are exempt from the fee.
Photo illustration by Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Ed | Evgenia Parajanian/iStock/Getty Images
After a federal court struck down the Trump administration’s effort to levy a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications, the Department of Homeland Security is trying a different approach to impose a similar fee.
Under a proposal released Monday, new H-1B visa petitions will have to pay $103,265 in addition to the other required fees. DHS expects the new fee to generate about $3 billion, which will be used to offset costs related to administering the lawful immigration system. The plan is open for public comment for 30 days.
Only H-1B petitions that are subject to an annual cap have to pay the additional fee. But universities, along with nonprofit research institutions and national labs, are exempt from that cap. (The administration’s previous $100,000 fee would have applied to universities.)
