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H-1B visa fee hiked to $100,000, but how much does it cost right now?
Trump's move of increasing H-1B visa fee to $100,000 is set to hit hard some of US's biggest companies that rely heavily on workers from abroad.
In what can be called Donald Trump's most expensive move in his anti-migrant actions, the US administration has decided to impose a staggering $100,000 annual fee on H-1B visas which are employer-sponsored and allow companies to sponsor foreign workers with specialised skills to work in the United States.
The move, taking effect from September 21, is set to hit hard some of US's biggest companies that rely heavily on workers from abroad, a major chunk of whom are Indians. Follow H-1B visa news live updates
Indians made up of 71 per cent H-1B visa grantees in 2024, while China was a distant second with about 11 per cent.
The $100,000 fees is a massive leap from the current amount and, according to an HT analysis, more than the median annual salary of a fresh H-1B visa holder and more than 80 per cent of the average annual salary of all H-1B visa holders.
How much does H-1B visa currently cost?
The United States awards 85,000 H-1B visas per year on a lottery system, with India accounting for around three-quarters of the recipients. Of the 399,395 H-1B visas approved in 2024, Indians received an overwhelming 71 per cent. China was a distant second with just 11.7 per cent.
Until now, employers sponsoring H-1B visas have paid a combination of fees totaling anywhere from over $1,700 to over $8,000 per worker – depending on company size, processing speed, and visa type.
The core fees include a $215 registration fee, a base petition fee of $460–$780, a $500 anti-fraud fee, and, for larger employers with over 50 per cent of staff on H-1B or L-1 visas, an additional $4,000 fee, according to USCIS data cited across reports.
Many employers also opt for premium processing at $2,805 to speed up approvals. Altogether, these fees have typically added up to between $2,000 and $8,000-plus per H-1B employee, well below the $100,000 annual fee proposed under the new rule.
The H-1B $100,000 application fee in particular is at risk of being struck down as “excessive,” a Bloomberg report quoted Becky Fu von Trapp, an immigration lawyer in Stowe, Vermont. That’s because federal law allows agencies to charge enough to recoup reasonable costs, and most work visa applications currently cost about $5,000, as mentioned above.
Basically, even with the current varying H-1B fees structure, with even the most complex ones, for certain investment visas, usually running less than $10,000 in total.
Even if we consider $10,000 as the current H-1B visa fee, the proposed amount of 100,000 increases would be a 10-fold jump.
Trump described the misuse of the H-1B system as a "national security threat", citing investigations by law enforcement into outsourcing firms heavily reliant on the programme.
