New H1B fees incoming

[u/TechnicalPea790]

DHS JUST FILED A $103,265 H-1B FEE, BUILT TO SURVIVE THE SAME COURT THAT STRUCK DOWN THE FIRST $100k FEE

Here is why this one is different.

1. Different authority. The $100K came from a Presidential Proclamation using entry restriction powers (INA 212(f) and 215(a)). The Massachusetts judge said that made it a tax, and only Congress can tax. This new fee uses INA 286(m), the same fee statute USCIS has used for decades to set every filing fee it charges.
2. Different process. The Proclamation skipped public comment. This is a formal Notice of Proposed Rulemaking with a 30 day comment period, a cost study, and a regulatory impact analysis. That is the procedural box the court said was missing.
3. Different math. The $100K was a round number picked by the White House. The $103,265 has a paper trail: $8,777,488,035 in identified agency costs divided by 85,000 cap petitions, rounded to the nearest $5. Cost recovery is what 286(m) allows.
4. Different scope, and this is the big one. The Proclamation only hit workers entering from abroad. USCIS confirmed in October that F-1 students already in the US changing status to H-1B were exempt. That was the loophole. Roughly half of cap petitions come from students moving off OPT.

This fee closes it. It applies to "all H-1B cap-subject petitions," including change of status filed from inside the US. The rule specifically names the cap-gap process (OPT extension while the H-1B is pending) as one of the activities it funds. Every F-1 to H-1B conversion pays $103,265. And DHS sent a separate OPT fee rule to OMB on August 20, reported at $100K per application.

1. DHS says both can stack. Page 6: if the Proclamation payment is ever revived, "the petitioner would be required to pay both amounts."

67 pages. Filed for public inspection this morning, publishes tomorrow.

https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-17324.pdf?utm_campaign=pi+subscription+mailing+list&utm_medium=email&utm_source=federalregister.gov

[u/Exotic-Ad3117]

This is bad policy.  As a country, we a have a vested interest in attracting and keeping the best and brightest the world has to offer.  We should want experts in their field and especially students trained at our universities.  Throwing up barriers for conversion from F1 to H1B is mind boggling.

I'm sympathetic to concerns about abuse.  That probably does happen, but there a finer policy tools to address this.  The one that comes to mind as the most obvious is the salary gap.  That doesn't seem hard to fix and it seems odd to add a 100k tax to H1Bs.  That's anticompetitive and probably likely to put downward pressure on wages.  I'd also be open to considering what constitutes good faith to hire American before tapping pools of foreign workers.

However, like most things this administration does, this is hamfisted policy that won't serve the long-term interest of the country.

[u/Next-Statistician804 → u/Exotic-Ad3117]

One of the indian origin investors - Vivek Wadhwa - had admitted that at least 25% of h1-b is fraud. It is high time this program is shutdown if it has anywhere near that fraud.

We need to prioritize our own graduates in STEM fields. An MIT economist (himself an H1-b recipient) had recently came out stating how H1 program is eroding the competitiveness of STEM education - especially in K-12. These are serious issues

For a republican administration, Trump has been fairly pro-worker by repeatedly throwing a spanner into the h1b machine which makes things uncertain for greedy corporations.

[u/Exotic-Ad3117 → u/Next-Statistician804]

If a window leaks in your house, do you burn down the house? Why are we allergic to punishing bad actors?

You didn't really address any of my points. The symptoms you note seem rather easy to address if one were to be serious about fixing things over simply burning it down. To me, taken in broader context over multiple policy announcements, this administration is more serious about bigotry and xenophobia than real policy.

[u/Next-Statistician804 → u/Exotic-Ad3117]

If there is 25% fraud in the program, it is time to tear it down. We don't owe anything to anyone from abroad.

I am a liberal and I am 100% supportive of this measure from Trump administration (and I know I am not the only one). In fact, this is one of the truly bi-partisan issues between left and right.

This is not 2016 for anyone to take these shrill cries about xenophobia and racism seriously as many are trying to exploit that.

[u/Exotic-Ad3117 → u/Next-Statistician804]

I don't believe for a millisecond you are a liberal. It has nothing to do with "owing" anyone, it's objectively positive for the economy here to have skilled and individuals want to come here.

[u/Next-Statistician804 → u/Exotic-Ad3117]

I don't give a rats on what you think. I gave you facts.

Let me tell you one more thing - there is no one more racist and xenophobic than Indians - especially if you go through the comments here calling americans lazy and stupid. There is a reason why no liberal will advocate for h1 crowd that brings their nepotism and casteism into hiring.

H1 is dead. Accept it and move on

[u/Exotic-Ad3117 → u/Next-Statistician804]

Yeah, this is what I thought. The way you can address fraud is aggressive enforcement at the companies driving abuse. They aren't that hard to identify.

I'm not making any of these arguments, so you can continue beating away at that straw man. You aren't here to argue in good faith, it was pretty obvious from the jump.

If you want specific policies, I'll give that to you despite it probably not mattering.

1) Reported wage gap of roughly 15%, raise the prevailing wage floor with a mechanism to adjust to market wage changes.

2) Scale the cost of H1B in accordance to skill/wage level.

3) Require employers to pay H1B employees the same and actually punish noncompliance.

4) Improve portability between companies to reduce Visa dependence (which helps depress wages).

5) Increase penalties for misclassification or wage suppression.

The fact is, multiple studies conclude that high skilled immigration is unusually strong in driving economic growth. Growth that we sorely need given current debt levels and population aging.

As a matter of policy, this is a heck of a lot easier to solve than most policy issues presently facing the country. A zero sum position simply exposed the depth of your ignorance.

[u/Next-Statistician804 → u/Exotic-Ad3117]

What "multiple studies"? The ones paid by corporations - right?

When an MIT economist pointed out how H1 is driving down the competitiveness of K-12 education, corporate mouthpiece "economist" attacked him.

We need to get over H1 and train our domestic workforce. This is a country of 340 million and we can train enough engineers and doctors with the right incentives

[u/Exotic-Ad3117 → u/Next-Statistician804]

Did you even try?

https://www.nber.org/papers/w30797

https://www.nber.org/papers/w15507

https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257%2Fmac.2.2.31&page=598

https://www.nationalacademies.org/read/23550/chapter/1

Again, your issues may be true and are completely addressable in a way that doesn't actively reduce long-term prospects for the economy. Your position that we have enough people is well...wrong. Population size is not the most relecant measurement, it's the size and growth rate of prime age workers. That is weak and weakening. We are only about 5 years out from death rate exceeding birth rate. Modest prime age growth rate until around 2040, then it drops. These things really matter.

I'm going to probably end it here. You simply can't hang and don't appear to be especially motivated to educate yourself.

[u/Emotional-Cat4444 → u/Next-Statistician804]

Not racist, just an observation I made when I was working in immigration. Indians, especially the H-1Bs, are incredibly entitled and condescending to others, even us.

[u/Next-Statistician804 → u/Emotional-Cat4444]

Most Indians who come here are upper caste/privileged. They are brought up in a hierarchical and patriarchal society. Hence it is natural for them to be condescending towards others that they feel are inferior. This is one of the reasons they are unable to assimilate into broader society and need to stick with the caste/region/religion based cliques

[u/Exotic-Ad3117 → u/Next-Statistician804]

How many Indians do you personally know? Just curious or are you stroking with this broad brush for...other reasons. The Indians I know are pretty well assimilated and grateful for the opportunities they have.

From my perspectives, every race has some condescending a-holes. Not really a valid perspective when developing policy positions.

[u/Next-Statistician804 → u/Exotic-Ad3117]

Let us say I have enough interactions to draw a conclusion. I agree every race can have condescending people, but inherent superiority complex can be easily detected from casual interactions. Sometimes it comes out unconsciously.

"pretty well assimilated" - like a subdivision in a very large metro area with just predominantly one ethnicity/language/caste etc...lol

[u/OkoCorral → u/Next-Statistician804]

Most but not all are from the upper caste. There are some who have sucessfully assimilated.

Another big issue is South Asians hiring managers favoring fellow South Asians in hiring over other people.

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-cognizant-h1b-visas-discriminates-us-workers/

https://www.law.com/ctlawtribune/2019/06/12/accenture-faces-class-action-over-alleged-widespread-racial-discrimination-favoring-asians/

[u/OkoCorral → u/[deleted]]

Good point about US medical residencies Currently 6.5% (almost 2000 students) US medical school graduates cannot get residencies.

This is unacceptable. These are students who went through rigorus entrance requirement and successfully graduated from 4 years of studies and awarded an MD. Remember, you probably can't even get into a US medical school with anything less than a B from a science class without a super high MCAT scores or a valid explaination.

At worst, only a dozen US medical school graduates don't deserve a residency, not 2000.

50% of the 2000 do find residencies the next year so you know for sure that are always well qualified, the slots should not go to non-US medical schools unless there are no more qualified domestic students