Trump renews $100,000 H-1B fee for another year

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration renewed a $100,000 per-petition fee on H-1B nonimmigrant worker visas for a second consecutive year, extending the restriction through September 21, 2027 and citing a 92 percent reduction in H-1B registrations by the largest information technology staffing and outsourcing firms as evidence that the policy is achieving its stated goal of protecting American workers.

A national interest exemption, administered at the Secretary of Homeland Security’s discretion, allows individual workers and employers to be excluded from the fee requirement when hiring is determined not to pose a threat to United States security or welfare.

H-1B fee renewal cites 92 percent drop in IT staffing firm registrations

According to the White House proclamation, the $100,000 per-petition restriction applies to H-1B nonimmigrant workers in specialty occupations, with the largest information technology staffing and outsourcing firms identified as primary users of the H-1B program through registration concentrations that the administration argues suppress wages and displace American workers, including recent STEM graduates.

The proclamation cited a 92 percent decrease in H-1B registrations by the largest IT staffing and outsourcing firms, from 24,946 to 2,055, as a measurable outcome that the administration characterized as justifying the fee’s renewal for another twelve-month period.

Consular processing requests declined by nearly 97 percent between fiscal years 2025 and 2027, a reduction the White House presented as parallel evidence that the fee has fundamentally altered H-1B as a volume staffing strategy for firms with large U.S. client-facing delivery operations.

The White House said certain employers had “abused the system to suppress wages and displace American workers” and that the fee renewal continues to address that abuse by making the H-1B pathway economically prohibitive for firms that rely on it for labor cost arbitrage.

Offshore delivery economics improve as H-1B costs reach $100,000 per worker

The $100,000 per-petition fee makes the H-1B route uneconomical for business process outsourcing (BPO) and IT staffing firms that previously used temporary nonimmigrant labor to staff U.S. client-facing operations, shifting the economic comparison toward offshore delivery models where equivalent technical capability is available at a fraction of the H-1B cost basis.

IT staffing and outsourcing firms that built U.S. revenue bases on H-1B-staffed onsite consulting face financial pressure to restructure delivery toward remote or offshore outsourcing alternatives, as the $100,000 per-petition cost makes the H-1B route uneconomical for the entry-level client-facing work the proclamation identifies as the program’s most-abused segment.

The national interest exemption creates a discretionary pathway for fee relief, but the administrative uncertainty it imposes discourages H-1B planning as a core workforce strategy for IT firms with large U.S. client bases that require predictable staffing lead times.

The White House said the fee renewal extends a restriction that has already produced measurable reductions in H-1B activity among the IT staffing and outsourcing firms the administration identified as primary users of the program for workforce cost arbitrage.

For firms evaluating offshore outsourcing as an alternative to H-1B-dependent onsite staffing, the fee renewal extends the economic incentive to shift client-facing technology delivery from U.S.-based H-1B workers toward remote offshore teams that operate under jurisdiction-agnostic service agreements.

Enterprise buyers evaluating BPO and technology delivery providers in the context of the H-1B restriction should assess how each provider’s U.S. revenue base is structured and whether offshore delivery capacity can absorb the work that H-1B-dependent onsite models previously handled.

The 92 percent reduction in H-1B registrations by the largest IT staffing and outsourcing firms confirms that the $100,000 fee has functionally ended H-1B as a volume staffing strategy for firms with large U.S. client-facing delivery operations.

For enterprise technology buyers whose IT services contracts relied on H-1B-staffed onsite consulting, the fee renewal extends the pressure to renegotiate delivery models toward offshore-first or hybrid arrangements that do not depend on the H-1B pathway.

Offshore BPO and technology delivery providers that operate outside the H-1B system are structurally advantaged by the fee renewal, as the cost and administrative burden of the H-1B pathway makes offshore alternatives more competitive for the client-facing work that onsite H-1B placements previously captured.

Related news

• IT firms cut jobs while India’s GCCs expand · 18 Sep
• H-1B denials target IT outsourcing wage levels · 9 Sep
• H-1B visa overhaul favors high-wage tech talent over outsourcing firms · Jul 2025

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