Washington – A new study from the CCIA Research Center finds that the Department of Homeland Security’s proposed $103,265 fee on cap-subject H-1B petitions could cost the U.S. Treasury more than it raises if filings decline by more than about one-quarter. DHS proposed the $103,265 fee in August 2026, on top of existing fees and, where applicable, the $100,000 payment required under presidential proclamation that was extended last week through September 2027 despite court orders blocking the proclamation payment. DHS projects $8.8 billion a year in revenue from the fee by assuming that these unprecedented costs will result in no reduction in covered H-1B visa applications.
Under three of four demand scenarios analyzed by the CCIA Research Center, the fee would reduce net federal receipts. A 36% to 38% decline in H-1B filings would reduce federal receipts by an estimated $32 billion to $38 billion over 10 years. In a scenario matching the response to the $100,000 proclamation payment at the employers most exposed to it, a 75% decline, the reduction could reach $142 billion.
The study finds DHS’s revenue estimate assumes 85,000 annual H-1B filings even though the agency’s technical appendix shows that the $100,000 proclamation payment cut cap registrations by 92% at the employers most reliant on hiring from abroad and 38.5% program-wide. The proposed fee is 112 times larger than the biggest fee change in DHS’s analysis and equals 78% of median H-1B worker annual pay.
The following quote may be attributed to the report’s author, Trevor Wagener, who serves as CCIA’s Chief Economist and Director of the CCIA Research Center:
“DHS should reconsider an H-1B fee whose revenue projections depend on assuming no significant reduction in applications despite creating six-figure cost increases per application.”
