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NAM Calls for Fixes, Not Fees, for High-Skilled Immigration

By NAM NewsroomOctober 8, 2026

The NAM just told the Department of Homeland Security that the administration’s proposed six-figure fee for most H-1B visa petitions would harm manufacturing in the U.S.

What’s going on: “There is clear evidence that industry’s access to high-skilled immigrant labor boosts overall innovation and economic activity, and that this in turn benefits U.S. workers,” the NAM said.

  • The draft rulemaking to impose a $103,265 filing fee for each H-1B petition subject to the annual cap (85,000 a year) does not stand up to the “heightened scrutiny” with which all such economically important policies should be reviewed, according to the NAM.
  • The draft proposal also fails to account for other expected related regulatory developments, the NAM told U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: the publication this fall of new Optional Practical Training (OPT) fees.

Why it’s important: Many visa holders using the OPT work authorization later transition to H-1B visas—and “employers’ ability to pay for both OPT and H-1B fees would be minimal,” the NAM said, reducing the number of petitions and all the economic benefits that accrue with high-skilled foreign-born workers.

  • The text of the rulemaking says, in part, that the proposed fee is not “significant compared to the petitioner’s wage obligation,” but it amounts to 13% of the average H-1B visa holder’s salary over the course of the six-year H-1B admission period—a sum that is “not, actually, negligible,” said the NAM.
  • Furthermore, the proposed fee would have an adverse effect on small and mid-size businesses, and the text of the proposed rule “makes no accommodation for these smaller entrepreneurs, nor [does it present] any alternative ways to mitigate this harm.”
  • Finally, the fee “would fund agency activities that are unrelated to those for which the fee would be paid,” and those activities are ineligible to receive the money.

Our take: “With half-a-million open manufacturing jobs and an intense global competition for high-skilled talent, we need a legal immigration system that allows manufacturers to access the specialized skills they cannot find here at home,” said NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons.

  • “At a time of historic investment in America, imposing a six-figure fee on H-1B visas would put critical talent out of reach for many manufacturers and undermine efforts to grow, innovate, invest and manufacture more in America.”

What should be done: The administration should not finalize the proposed rulemaking to implement the fee, according to the NAM.

  • Instead, it should consider working with the NAM and other stakeholders on solutions to America’s high-skilled immigration challenges, such as adaptation of existing visa programs and the creation of new ones.

NAM in the News: Bloomberg Law covered the NAM’s comments.