One report claims that the $100,000 fee did not impact H-1B visa numbers, as half of H-1B applicants are already in the US on other visas and do not have to pay the fee if selected.
The Center for Immigration Studies claimed in a report that the $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications did not reduce the number of H-1B visas, as most recipients are already in the United States.
John Miano said in the report that the visa fee, which has been in effect since September 2025, is for candidates who are not inside the United States when petitions are filed, not for those who are in the country on certain other visa programs. Miano is an expert on the impact of foreign labor on technology workers. But the report has already sparked controversy, with David J. Behr, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, calling it a false argument and saying that even if half of potential H-1B visa applicants were in the United States, cutting the other half would have a significant impact. In his report, Miano cited data that in 2024, 54% of H-1B beneficiaries were already in the United States in another situation. “Assuming that 54% of potential recipients were already in the United States, this means that more than 180,000 of the workers were already in the United States. Even without the practice of manipulating the H-1B process, such as temporarily moving people to the United States on another visa, there are more than twice as many foreigners entering the lottery who are exempt from the $100,000 fee (i.e.
already in the US) due to visa openings,” Miano noted. Pointing to a recent report that this year’s lottery (FY2027 H-1B Visa Lottery) saw a decrease in the number of entries and thus an increase in the chance of winning the lottery, Miano said the fee has no impact as the annual H-1B quota of 85,000 will be filled like every two years. “There will be 85,000 quota visas this year, as was the case last year and the year before.
The $100,000 fee had no impact on that number. The Trump administration has not delivered or approved more visas. The odds of winning the lottery have simply improved this year; The approval rate has gone up, not the number of approvals. The only question is how the $100,000 fee will affect visas that are not subject to the university or government research quota.
In fiscal year 2024, that was 56,000 visas. “We won’t know that until the end of the fiscal year,” Miano said. Pierre disagreed and said this still results in a lot of visas being revoked because people who are already in the U.S. don’t get visas if they become an H-1B — their status just changes. He said this is bad for the economy because those people who are already in the United States may already be contributing to the economy and foreign talent will not be able to come to the United States. “Even if we focus on granting status + visas, the fees will still reduce visas net by reducing issuances to 50,000 exempt workers from the cap,” Pierre said.