President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday released a proposed regulation to codify an unprecedented fee of more than $100,000 on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers that has been blocked by the courts.
The fee, first temporarily imposed by Trump last year dramatically raises the cost of visas that are heavily relied on in the tech, education and research sectors.
A federal judge in June ruled that the fee was illegal and blocked the Trump administration from collecting it.
A Boston-based appeals court is reviewing that decision while a different court considers whether a judge properly rejected a challenge to the fee by a major business group.
Trump’s temporary fee increase expires in September, one year after it was issued.
The proposed rule by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, posted in the Federal Register on Monday, would make a fee of $103,265 permanent. It could be finalized by the end of the year.
The H-1B program allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers with training in specialty fields and offers 65,000 visas annually, with another 20,000 for workers with advanced degrees, approved for three to six years.
Those visas typically came with fees between $2,000 and $5,000 before Trump’s order.
The fee would not apply to visas granted to foreign citizens already in the United States on student visas, who make up a large share of new H-1B recipients, or to renewals of current visas. —Reuters
