The $100,000 H-1B Fee

A structural analysis of the dispute over a $100,000 H-1B charge: can the executive branch reshape the cost of an H-1B petition by administrative action alone, and how does such a charge redistribute burden across employers, foreign workers, startups, and the U.S. labor market?

1. 01A fee of this magnitude functions as an eligibility filter, not as cost recovery.
2. 02Whether the executive may impose it turns on statutory authorization and the fee-setting framework, not on policy desirability.
3. 03The burden falls unevenly: large employers absorb it, startups and research-adjacent employers do not.
4. 04Cost-based filtering changes who reaches the employment-based green card pipeline years later.
5. 05Litigation exposure runs through the Administrative Procedure Act — authority, notice, and reasoned explanation.

This page is the abstract and outline. The full text is not published on this site.