Trump administration moves to impose new six-figure H-1B fee after court defeat

The Trump administration is proposing a fee of $103,265 for employers requesting H-1B visas used to bring skilled foreign workers into the U.S., in another effort to vastly increase what employers have to spend on hiring these workers.

But a proposal to greatly raise the cost of employing skilled foreigners via H-1B visa was struck down last month by a federal court after being found to be similar to an earlier attempt at a $100,000 fee, which was also tossed out.

On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security published the proposal to set up a 30-day public comment period. It is possible that this would be finalised by the end of the year but will almost certainly run into legal challenges again. A federal judge struck down the previous plan of increasing the fee to $100,000 as the executive branch didn’t have authority to enact what essentially amounted to a tax without first getting Congress’ approval in June.

Newly released details of the proposal suggest employers who seek out H-1B workers, widely used by technology companies, universities and other organisations to bring over specialist foreign talent, will face significant cost increases under this new proposal.

Under the current programme, there are 85,000 H-1B visas available each year, 20,000 of which have been allocated specifically to those who hold an advanced degree from US institutions.

But the newly released proposal says that this specific fee would not apply “when such visas are renewed or for applications to certain existing workers within country”, the release notes.

While the Obama administration claims reforms to the programme are necessary to protect American workers, many business groups argue H-1B programmes allow their companies to plug skills gaps.