The public comment period on the Department of Homeland Security’s proposed $103,265 fee for cap-subject H-1B petitions closed at 11:59 p.m. Eastern on September 24, 2026. The docket (USCIS-2026-0298) opened with the proposed rule’s publication in the Federal Register on August 25 (FR Doc. 2026-17324). As of the morning of September 25, regulations.gov showed 11,706 public comments posted. Another 388 were posted on September 25 alone as staff worked through the final-day backlog, so the total is still climbing.
The pace picked up sharply at the end. About 4,100 comments were posted in the last 15 days, 1,424 in the last seven, and 907 in the final three. Most came from individuals: H-1B workers, F-1 students hoping to enter the cap, and U.S. workers on both sides of the debate. The organizational filings in the last 48 hours show who plans to fight the rule. They include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Information Technology Industry Council, the Consumer Technology Association, the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, the Association of American Universities, the American Council on Education, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and a joint filing from the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the American Immigration Council. Individual universities also filed, among them Columbia, Michigan, Florida and Mississippi State.
Health care was the most organized bloc. In a September 23 comment, the AHA asked DHS to exempt health care workers from the fee. It warned that the fee would hit rural and underserved hospitals hardest, and it asked DHS to ease the burden on foreign-trained physicians through the Conrad 30 J-1 waiver program. AILA and the Council filed their joint comment on September 24 and urged DHS to withdraw the rule entirely. The Chamber, which is already litigating the separate $100,000 proclamation payment, has said the new fee would make H-1B sponsorship “cost-prohibitive” for start-ups and small businesses.
What happens next. Closing the comment period does not end the process or start a clock. Before DHS can issue a final rule, it must review the comments and respond to the significant ones. The final rule then goes back through White House (OIRA) review. The agency may finalize the rule as proposed, change it (for example, by adding a health care carve-out), or withdraw it. Nothing takes effect until a final rule is published with an effective date. The proposal would apply to initial cap-subject petitions, including change-of-status filings for F-1 students and others already in the United States. It is separate from the $100,000 entry payment that the September 18 proclamation renewed through September 2027. That payment is currently not being enforced because of litigation, and the proposal says employers subject to both charges would pay both.
What this means for you. If you are an F-1 student or OPT worker planning to enter the FY2028 H-1B lottery, the fee is not in effect today. It could still be finalized before the March 2027 registration season. Employers are already weighing that risk, so talk to your sponsor early about budget and timing. This is also a good moment to look at employment-based green card routes that do not depend on the H-1B cap or an employer’s willingness to pay, above all the EB-2 National Interest Waiver and EB-1A, which you can self-petition.
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Source: Regulations.gov docket USCIS-2026-0298 (primary-source sweep)