H-1B visa has become costlier for US companies. For every H-1B petition filed to hire a foreign worker, the US employer has to pay a $100,000 fee to the US government. The $100,000 H-1B petition fee is in place since September 21, 2025, and will apply for the 2027 H-1B cap season as well.
Will the newly imposed $100,000 H-1B petition fee deter US companies from hiring foreign workers?
A study authored by George J. Borjas, Harvard University and NBER suggests that firms may be willing to pay a one-time fee to obtain the visa.
The study finds that on average, H-1B workers earn 16 percent less than comparable US-born workers, suggesting that firms may be willing to pay a one-time fee to obtain the visa. The study finds that the revenue maximizing fee is between $118,000 and $264,000, and therefore, will have little or no impact on the number of H-1Bs hired, and generates between $6.2 and $22.4 billion in revenues.
Since the average salary of these high-skill workers exceeds $100,000, the average payroll savings accruing to a firm that wins an H-1B visa in the lottery are large, nearing $100,000 over the six-year employment term.
The study attains more importance after the introduction of $100,000 H-1B petition fee that a US firm has to pay while hiring every foreign worker. The NBER study’s payroll savings suggest that firms may be willing to pay a one-time fee to obtain an H-1B visa.
The fee also changes the skill composition of the H-1B workforce, making it more skilled. Testifying before Congress, for example, Bill Gates claimed that: “Microsoft has found that for every H-1B hire we make, we add on average four additional employees to support them in various capacities.” These savings suggest that employers might be willing to pay a fee to ‘buy’ a visa for a particular H-1B worker.
The H-1B visa selection process has been updated for the 2027 season, implementing a new wage-based selection method. This system prioritizes higher-skilled and higher-paid applicants while still permitting employers to hire H-1B workers across different wage levels.
There will be a new four-level wage system for H-1B positions, categorized by the worker’s experience and job requirements: Level 1 for entry-level, Level 2 for experienced workers, Level 3 for competent professionals, and Level 4 for experts. The implementation of this wage-based selection rule significantly impacts Level 1 workers, as the chances of H-1B visa approval can decrease by 48% for those at the lower salary tier, compared to an increase in chances of approval for Level 4 by 107%.
H-1B cap season 2027 registration will open at noon Eastern Time on March 4, and the last date for filing H-1B cap season 2027 registrations ends at noon Eastern on March 19, 2026.