US Proposes Over $100,000 H‑1B Visa Fee Amid Trump Immigration Restrictions and Delta‑Aeromexico JV Cleared

The Trump administration has issued a Federal Register notice raising the H-1B specialty-worker visa fee to $103,265, taking it above the $100,000 mark for the first time. The increase resets the cost structure for employers hiring skilled foreign workers and lands hardest on Indian nationals, who have historically taken the largest share of H-1B allocations.

The immediate corporate exposure sits with large-cap technology and IT services, where H-1B sponsorship is a standard staffing input rather than an exception. At six figures per petition, the fee stops being an administrative line item and starts functioning as a tax on the offshore-onshore staffing model, which argues for more work being done outside the United States rather than less hiring overall.

Two adjacent legal developments moved the same day. A federal judge struck down the ban on visa issuance for citizens of 75 countries, restoring access for travelers from those nations while leaving other immigration measures standing. Separately, Harvard advised international students on F-1 and J-1 visas to return to the United States before September 15 ahead of pending rule changes, a signal of how much regulatory uncertainty universities are pricing in.

In aviation, a U.S. Court of Appeals cleared the DAL Delta Air Lines-Aeroméxico joint venture to continue operating, removing an overhang on Delta's cross-border capacity and its Aeroméxico equity stake. Watch the comment period on the H-1B notice and whether the fee survives the litigation it will almost certainly attract; a fee that is enjoined before it takes effect has very different cost implications than one that sticks.

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