Big Healthcare Circles The Wagons As DHS Floats New H-1B Fee

Some of America’s biggest healthcare associations released letters of public comment condemning the Department of Homeland Security’s proposed H-1B visa regulation fees.

The window for submitting public comment regarding DHS’ proposed rule, “Fee for Certain H-1B Petition,” closed Thursday. The American Hospital Association (AHA) and American Medical Association (AMA) were two of several healthcare professional trade unions to criticize the $103,265 visa fee proposed by the Trump administration’s DHS.

In an open letter to Joseph Edlow, the Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the AHA said that the new rule could significantly impact the doctors employed in the 5,000 hospitals it represents.

“The AHA recommends that DHS make healthcare professionals exempt from any additional fees to ensure continued access to timely, high-quality care for all communities,” the letter reads.

The American Medical Association also wrote a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin saying the new costs of requiring an H-1B visa could produce devastating consequences for International Medical Graduates and directly impact the healthcare system.

“The proposed rule is likely a violation of the Major Questions Doctrine,” the AMA letter alleges.

The Major Questions Doctrine of the Constitution states that an agency, “exceeds its authority when it attempts to undertake actions with political and economic significance that Congress has not clearly granted the agency authority over.”

The DHS and USCIS told the Daily Caller News Foundation they will address questions and concerns about the proposed ruling through the public comments process.

The H1-B visa program, first established in 1990, allows U.S. employers to temporarily hire foreign nationals for highly skilled specialty occupations such as in the technology, engineering and medical fields.

The proposed regulation from the DHS aims to use the increased fee to regenerate the federal government’s revenue from costs spent on immigration enforcement and administration. For fiscal year 2026, the department has planned to spend $356 billion dollars among the agency’s 16 sub-components.

USCIS receives most of its funding from the visa fees charged to applicants or petitioners for immigration benefit requests and DHS has authority to charge fees in recovery of costs associated with immigration and naturalization services, according to the suggested rule.

“Congress has established limits on the number of foreign workers who may be granted initial H-1B non-immigrant visas or status each fiscal year,” the proposed regulation reads.

The total number of foreign workers who may be granted initial H-1B nonimmigrant status during any fiscal year may not exceed 65,000, however up to 20,000 petitioners who have earned a qualifying U.S. master’s or higher degree may have an annual exemption from this limit, according to the Department of Labor.

The 11,080 foreign healthcare professionals made up less than five percent of H-1B visa holders currently in the U.S., and one percent of all practicing physicians in 2024, according to statistics presented in the AHA’s letter. The AHA argues that there is a shortage of medical health workers in the country and the new visa regulations would contribute to this.

On October 3, 2025 Global Nurse Forces and a coalition of labor workers filed suit against the Trump administration after President Donald Trump issued an executive order to increase the H-1B petition fee from approximately $3500 to $100 000 in September 2025. The federal court case is pending in the California District Court.

Republican Utah Rep. Mike Kennedy has proposed a bill that would make the H-1B visa regulation fee permanent.

“My dad is an immigrant. I’m a big fan of immigrants, but we need to make sure that immigrants are not taking advantage of the system — or employers aren’t taking advantage of the system — so that our American workforce is harmed,” Kennedy told the DCNF in a June interview.