Dallas Independent School District kept securing approvals for new H-1B visa hires even after a new six-figure payment tied to certain petitions took effect under the Trump administration’s restrictions on some nonimmigrant workers.
Federal employer data updated in February 2026 shows DISD continued to win approvals in late 2025, a period when school systems and other public employers began recalculating what it would cost to recruit educators from abroad.
Recruiters and immigration attorneys working with school districts have watched the change closely because it targets a slice of H-1B filings that often overlaps with international teacher hiring, particularly when candidates start outside the United States and must complete consular processing.
The new payment traces back to a September 19, 2025, Presidential Proclamation titled “Restriction On Entry Of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers.” The policy began at 12:01 a.m. EDT on September 21, 2025, and it added a new cost layer on top of standard H-1B procedures for certain cases.
USCIS guidance dated October 20, 2025, drew a line between filings that trigger the new payment and those that generally do not, creating immediate uncertainty for employers trying to plan recruiting cycles around school-year calendars.
In a December 23, 2025 statement, Matthew Tragesser, USCIS Spokesman, framed the approach as part of a broader crackdown. “As part of the Trump Administration’s commitment to H-1B reform, we will continue to demand more from both employers and aliens so as not to undercut American workers and to put America first,” Tragesser said.
USCIS said the new payment applies to new H-1B petitions filed for beneficiaries outside the U.S. who do not have a valid H-1B visa, a category that can include educators recruited directly from overseas.
The same October 20, 2025 guidance also covered petitions requesting consular notification or port of entry inspection for an individual currently in the United States, a scenario that can arise when a worker seeks to complete the process through a consulate or at the border rather than through a change of status inside the country.
At the same time, USCIS described exemptions that matter to employers already relying on the program, including extensions for existing H-1B holders and amendments without a change of status.
The guidance also said the payment generally does not apply to “cap-gap” students transitioning from F-1 to H-1B status within the U.S., a provision more commonly associated with private-sector hiring but still part of the lines USCIS drew around the policy.
For school districts trying to estimate the budget effect of an international hire, the new payment represents a sharp break from past experience, when H-1B sponsorship costs ranged from $2,000 to $5,000.
That change hits hardest for new international hires, not for renewals, and the distinction can shape whether an employer keeps a current H-1B teacher on staff or takes on the larger expense and administrative burden of bringing in someone who begins the process outside the United States.
Employers must use pay.gov to submit what the government calls the “H-1B Visa Payment to Remove Restriction” before filing, adding another step to the front end of the process at the moment a district is deciding whether to move forward.
The jump from the earlier $2,000 to $5,000 range to the new payment equals a 2,000% to 5,000% increase for new international hires, a scale that can matter even more for public-sector entities operating under fixed appropriations and annual staffing plans.
DISD’s numbers illustrate why districts with persistent staffing gaps still track the program closely. The USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub, updated February 2026, shows Dallas ISD recorded 1,290 H-1B approvals between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2025.
Among those approvals, 18 occurred in the final quarter of 2025, after the new payment began at 12:01 a.m. EDT on September 21, 2025, suggesting the district and its partners continued processing cases under the new framework late in the year.
Dallas ISD remains one of the largest sponsors of H-1B visas among public school districts in the U.S., and it often employs between 230 and 380 international educators, the figures cited alongside the federal data.
The demand is tied in part to bilingual education needs. About 48% of DISD students do not speak English as their primary language, a measure that districts and teacher recruiters often cite when explaining why they look beyond local labor markets for qualified staff.
Across Texas, the program’s future in the public sector became more complicated on January 27, 2026, when Governor Greg Abbott ordered a pause on new H-1B petitions for state agencies and public universities until 2027 to allow for the establishment of “statutory guardrails.”
That directive primarily affected higher education and state offices, while K-12 districts like Dallas ISD have continued to rely on the program to fill critical bilingual and special education roles.
The split means public universities and state agencies operate under different constraints than local school systems, potentially shifting competition for bilingual educators and other shortage-area staff among employers that previously recruited from some of the same international pipelines.
At the federal level, the policy’s legal footing has already drawn a key ruling, even as litigation keeps the outlook unsettled for employers deciding whether to start new overseas recruitment.
In December 2025, Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for D.C. upheld the fee, citing the President’s broad authority under INA Section 1182(f) to restrict entry.
A fast-tracked appeal remained pending in February 2026 before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, leaving open the possibility of future changes that could influence how USCIS and DHS handle guidance and timelines for affected filings.
For employers, the practical issue has been planning under rules that can shift through court decisions and subsequent agency directions, particularly when a district’s staffing needs do not align neatly with the pace of visa adjudications and school-year start dates.
The policy also includes a narrow safety valve for cases the government views as exceptional. National Interest Exceptions may be granted by the Secretary of Homeland Security in “extraordinarily rare circumstances,” and they require evidence that the specific role is vital to U.S. interests and cannot be filled by an American worker.
Even with exemptions for extensions, amendments without change of status, and cap-gap transitions inside the United States, the cases most exposed to the new payment remain those tied to beneficiaries outside the country and to consular or port-of-entry processing paths, the scenarios USCIS highlighted in its October 20, 2025 guidance.
DISD’s late-2025 approvals show at least some filings continued moving, but the broader effect on hiring decisions will depend on how districts weigh the cost increase against persistent vacancies, especially in bilingual and special education classrooms.
School systems and other employers seeking the most current federal direction can check USCIS updates through its USCIS Newsroom H-1B FAQ and review the State Department’s notice tied to the proclamation through its Department of State visa restriction page.
For employer-level counts like DISD’s 1,290 approvals from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2025, USCIS posts periodic updates in the USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub, a dataset Dallas schools and other public employers now consult as the six-figure payment reshapes the cost of recruiting from abroad.
Dallas Independent School District Adds H-1B Visas After $100,000 Fee
Dallas ISD remains a top H-1B sponsor, even as a new $100,000 fee targets new international hires. While the fee represents a massive cost increase from previous levels, the district continues to process visas to meet critical staffing needs, particularly for its 48% non-English speaking student body. Recent court rulings have upheld the fee, though appeals continue to shape the program’s future.
