Foreign Grads Seeking H-1B Status Avoid $100,000 Trump Fee (1)

Recent international college graduates who are sponsored for H-1B status while in the US won’t be subject to a $100,000 fee imposed on the program, according to new guidance from the Trump administration.

Foreign workers who request an amendment, change of status, or extension of stay within the US also won’t be subject to the fee, US Citizenship and Immigration Services said Monday. Current H-1B visa holders also won’t be prevented from leaving and entering the US, the agency said.

USCIS also established an online portal to pay the $100,000 petition fee, which was issued in a surprise Sept. 19 White House proclamation.

It was President Donald Trump’s most disruptive measure so far targeting employment of foreign workers in the US. The administration said the fee would address abuse of the program heavily used by the tech sector, but separate legal challenges have warned it would wreak havoc on a range of US industries otherwise unable to fill key labor needs.

Businesses and immigration attorneys have also pressed the Trump administration for weeks to spell out how it would implement the fee.

Although the administration quickly clarified that only new H-1B petitions would be affected, significant questions remained unclear, including how student visa holders would be affected and whether any industries or occupations would be exempted from the fee.

The guidance posted Monday is the first time the administration has addressed those questions since the proclamation.

College graduates on F-1 student status appear to be covered by guidance provisions that say those already in the US wouldn’t be subject to the $100,000 charge. The fee would not apply to any petition “that is requesting an amendment, change of status, or extension of stay for an alien inside the United States where the alien is granted such amendment, change, or extension,” according to the guidance on the USCIS website.

Petitions filed for workers outside the US or for workers who must leave the US before a petition is adjudicated will be subject to the fee, the agency said. DHS didn’t indicate that any roles will be approved for blanket waivers, but said employers can submit a request for an exception if a worker’s presence is in the national interest and no American is available to fill the role.

A coalition of health-care providers, labor unions, schools, and religious employers that filed a challenge to the fee proclamation this month said the new guidance shows the Trump administration recognized the immediate harm the fee would have cause to workers already in the US.

But it’s still trying to impose a $100,000 price tag on immigration for many without authority from Congress, the group said.

“Our communities cannot plan around uncertainty, nor can we allow life-saving care, student learning, and scientific research to be held hostage to shifting, arbitrary rules,” plaintiffs in the suit said. “Our lawsuit will continue until the proclamation is blocked and the rule of law restored.”