JD Vance Defends $103,265 H-1B Fee, Urges Firms to Train Americans First

The Trump administration proposed a $103,265 H-1B fee for each new cap-subject petition, and Vice President JD Vance defended it as pressure on companies to recruit and train American workers.

Vance posted his position on X at 1:02 PM on August 24, 2026. His message was direct.

“If an American corporation needs workers, it should hire and train Americans.”

The Department of Homeland Security posted the proposal on Monday, August 24, 2026. The charge would apply to new petitions filed under the annual H-1B cap system.

DHS then published the rule in the Federal Register on August 25, 2026. That publication opened a 30-day public comment period.

The fee is proposed, not final. It is not yet payable under the reporting available, and the charge would come in addition to existing H-1B filing costs.

Both annual H-1B cap categories would face the new charge

The proposal would reach the regular H-1B allocation of 65,000 visas and the 20,000 advanced degree exemption. Together, those two tracks account for 85,000 cap-subject petitions.

That scope includes foreign graduates seeking to move from F-1/OPT status into H-1B employment. The administration’s plan does not appear to change renewals of existing visas.

The cost would therefore attach to new cap-subject sponsorships, including cases involving graduates who have been working in the United States through the student-to-work pathway.

Cap-exempt petitions would sit outside the proposal

The proposal identifies several categories that would not face the new charge.

The exclusions preserve a separate path for the listed cap-exempt petitioners. The proposed charge targets the annual cap process instead.

The proposal would add to the existing H-1B filing stack

Employers already encounter several H-1B charges during the filing process. Public reporting describes that stack as including the registration fee, the Form I-129 fee, the fraud fee, the ACWIA training fee, and the Asylum Program Fee.

Premium processing is optional. For most Form I-129 H-1B filings, its price rose to $2,965 for requests postmarked on or after March 1, 2026.

The proposed amount would sit above those existing costs rather than replace them. Its effect would be most direct in new cap-subject cases because the plan does not extend to the listed cap-exempt categories.

DHS projects billions in annual revenue

DHS says the charge would help recover the costs of administering the immigration system. The proposed rule projects about $8.8 billion in annual revenue, based on 85,000 cap-subject petitions.

A separate account of the plan said the money would help fund federal immigration courts and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The revenue estimate rests on the same 85,000-petition figure used to describe the two annual cap tracks.

The proposal would thus combine a cost-recovery rationale with the administration’s stated goal of encouraging companies to hire and train workers in the United States.

Immigration lawyers and employers warn the price could limit talent access

The American Immigration Lawyers Association, known as AILA, called the proposal “astronomical” and said it would undermine U.S. innovation.

Technology companies, research universities, hospitals, and business groups have warned that steep H-1B fees could reduce access to specialized global talent.

Those reactions set up a direct policy dispute. Vance has emphasized domestic hiring and training, while the groups opposing the plan have focused on the proposed cost and access to international workers.

The plan revives a fee dispute already before the courts

The proposal follows an earlier Trump-era effort to impose a $100,000 H-1B fee in September 2025. A federal judge blocked that measure in June 2026.

U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin in Massachusetts ruled on June 8, 2026, that the earlier fee was an unlawful tax requiring congressional approval.

The government sought a stay. A First Circuit panel rejected that request, leaving the earlier charge tied up in litigation.

The new proposal enters its comment period against that legal backdrop. Its final form will follow the administrative process now underway.

Employers and immigration attorneys can submit comments during the 30-day window. The Federal Register publication date is August 25, 2026.