The Department of Homeland Security published a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register on 25 August 2026, after appearing on public inspection on 24 August. It would establish a new fee of 103,265 dollars on every cap-subject H-1B petition, payable at filing and in addition to all existing H-1B fees. The docket is RIN 1615-AD20, CIS No. 2861-26, DHS Docket No. USCIS-2026-0298.
Start with the most important fact: this is a proposal, not law. Nothing changes until DHS reviews comments and issues a final rule.
What it would cover
The fee would apply to petitions filed under the regular 65,000 cap and to those filed under the 20,000 advanced degree exemption. It would be codified at 8 CFR 106.2(a)(3)(xii).
Cap-exempt petitions would not be covered. That exclusion reaches petitions filed by institutions of higher education, nonprofit research organizations and governmental research organizations.
If finalized as written, the fee could apply to cap-selected petitions as early as 1 April 2027.
How DHS arrived at the number
The fee is not calculated from the cost of adjudicating an H-1B petition. DHS divided roughly 8.78 billion dollars in projected annual immigration-system costs across the federal government by the 85,000 annual cap numbers.
Most of the projected revenue would fund agencies other than USCIS. DHS proposes allocating it as follows: USCIS 34.2 percent, about 3.0 billion dollars; EOIR 33.7 percent, about 2.96 billion; the Department of Labor 13.8 percent, about 1.21 billion; ICE 11.9 percent, about 1.05 billion; the State Department 5.5 percent, about 484 million; and CBP 0.9 percent, about 76.2 million.
For scale, the proposed fee is more than one hundred times the current base filing fee for an H-1B petition. If finalized as written it would be the largest fee ever imposed on an immigration benefit request in the agency’s history.
What DHS concedes
The agency’s own regulatory analysis estimates a significant economic impact on 11,051 small entities, which it puts at 76 percent of the small entities that filed cap-subject petitions in fiscal year 2025, and identifies no alternative that would reduce that burden.
The proposal does not address whether the fee would be returned if a petition is denied, rejected or withdrawn.
The comment window
DHS opened a thirty-day public comment period on publication, closing 24 September 2026. After reviewing comments the agency will decide whether to finalize, revise or withdraw the rule. Anyone may comment through the federal docket.
This proposal is separate from the 100,000 dollar payment established by presidential proclamation in 2025, which a federal court vacated in June 2026 and which is currently unenforced. We cover that litigation separately.
