A new Trump administration proposal that could change fees associated with H-1B fee worker petitions has cleared a key White House review, moving the measure closer to public release and adding another potential cost to a visa programme heavily used by Indian professionals.
The Department of Homeland Security proposal received clearance from the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on Wednesday, 19 August 2026. The proposal is identified by its regulatory identification number, RIN 1615-AD20, and is expected to be publicly released soon. It concerns petition fees for certain H-1B workers, though the specific fee structure has not yet been made public.
Why this H-1B Fee Rule matters specifically for Indian workers
The proposal is significant for Indian nationals and Indian Americans working in technology, engineering, healthcare and other specialised fields, because the H-1B programme remains one of the most important pathways for skilled foreign workers to build careers in the United States, and Indian nationals have consistently constituted the largest single group of H-1B recipients of any nationality.
DHS is advancing this rule amid a sustained sequence of Trump administration measures targeting the H-1B programme over the past year, most notably the $100,000 fee added in September 2025 for workers hired from outside the US. The agency has also sent a separate final regulation, identified as RIN 1615-AC93, to the White House for review, indicating this is not an isolated measure but part of a broader, ongoing regulatory push affecting the programme.
What is the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and what does its clearance mean?
What is OIRA clearance, and what does it signal about a proposed rule?
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, part of the White House Office of Management and Budget, reviews significant federal regulations before they can be formally proposed or finalised. OIRA clearance is a required procedural step for major rules, but it is not the final stage in the regulatory process. Once a federal agency, in this case the Department of Homeland Security, publishes the proposed rule following OIRA clearance, it typically opens a public comment period during which employers, immigration attorneys, affected workers and other stakeholders can submit formal feedback.The agency then reviews those comments before deciding whether to issue a final regulation, which can differ from the original proposal based on that input. OIRA clearance therefore indicates a rule is moving forward within the administration, not that it has taken legal effect.
What has not changed, and what remains unclear
For H-1B workers and employers, the immediate practical takeaway is that no new fee under this specific proposal has taken effect yet. The rule must still be formally published, opened for public comment, and finalised before it carries legal force. Once DHS releases the proposal publicly, the specific fee amounts, which categories of petitions it covers, and its proposed effective date will become clear for the first time.
What the clearance does signal is that the administration’s broader effort to reshape the H-1B programme through additional costs and stricter requirements is continuing, with further financial burden potentially on the table for both employers and the foreign professionals they sponsor.
How this fits into a year of escalating H-1B changes
This proposal is the latest in a sequence of H-1B measures introduced over the past twelve months, each adding cost or complexity to the programme Indian professionals rely on most heavily.
In September 2025, President Trump signed Presidential Proclamation 10973, introducing the $100,000 fee for new H-1B petitions filed on or after 21 September 2025, including petitions filed through the 2026 lottery. USCIS subsequently confirmed the fee is a one-time charge applying to new petitions rather than an annual cost, with straightforward extensions involving the same employer treated as the clearest exemption, though the government’s guidance on transfers and changes of status has remained less clearly defined.
Around the same period, DHS separately proposed overhauling the H-1B lottery system itself, introducing a weighted selection process favouring higher-skilled and higher-paid foreign workers, a change the department said was intended to discourage employers from using the programme to fill lower-paid or lower-skilled positions. That weighted lottery has already reshaped who gets selected in the FY2027 cycle, a shift NRI Affairs covered in detail when USCIS confirmed the cap had been reached with no second selection round.
More recently, in early August 2026, reports indicated the Trump administration was also moving to raise fees specifically for H-1B and L-1 visa extensions, a change that would, for the first time, extend significant new costs to renewals rather than only new hires or job transfers, an expansion that would touch a substantially larger population of Indian professionals already working in the US on these visas.
The broader diplomatic and economic backdrop
The Council on Foreign Relations has noted that the administration’s H-1B measures sit within its wider trade agenda, prioritising American businesses and workers while restricting legal immigration more broadly, alongside punitive tariffs imposed on India earlier this year that have already strained the bilateral relationship.
India’s foreign ministry has previously stated that new visa restrictions of this kind could carry “humanitarian consequences” by disrupting the income sources supporting families back home, given that the Reserve Bank of India recorded remittances from the global Indian diaspora at approximately $135 billion in 2024. Nasscom, India’s technology industry trade association, has separately warned that escalating H-1B costs could produce “ripple effects” extending beyond the immediate workers and employers directly affected.
What Indian professionals and employers should do now
Has any new H-1B fee taken effect as a result of this specific proposal?
No. The proposal has cleared White House review but has not yet been publicly released, opened for comment, or finalised. No new fee under this specific RIN 1615-AD20 proposal is currently in effect.
How does this differ from the existing $100,000 H-1B fee?
The $100,000 fee, introduced under Presidential Proclamation 10973 in September 2025, applies to new H-1B petitions filed on or after 21 September 2025. This newly cleared proposal is a separate DHS regulatory action concerning H-1B petition fees more broadly, with its specific scope and fee structure not yet publicly detailed.
When will the specific details of this new fee proposal become public?
DHS is expected to publicly release the proposed rule soon following its 19 August OIRA clearance, at which point a formal public comment period is expected to open before any final regulation is issued.
Should I delay filing an H-1B petition or renewal until this rule is finalised?
This article does not provide legal or immigration advice. Given the pace of regulatory change to the H-1B programme over the past year, affected workers and employers should monitor official DHS and USCIS announcements closely and consult a qualified immigration attorney before making filing timing decisions based on anticipated but not yet finalised rules.
Does this proposal affect H-1B extensions with the same employer?
The specific scope of this proposal, including whether it affects extensions, has not been publicly detailed as of the date of publication. Separately, reports in early August 2026 indicated the administration was considering raising fees specifically for H-1B and L-1 extensions, a distinct development from this OIRA-cleared proposal.
