WASHINGTON, Aug. 25 -- For the software engineer in Bengaluru who cleared five rounds of technical interviews with a Seattle-based technology company this spring, the offer letter was everything. Then came the rider: the company was holding the H-1B sponsorship decision pending the outcome of a federal court case that could determine whether hiring her would cost $103,265 in government fees alone.

That courtroom uncertainty hardened into regulatory reality on Sunday. The Department of Homeland Security published a formal rulemaking notice in the Federal Register proposing to make permanent a $103,265 H-1B application fee, a figure that represents an increase of more than fifty times over fee structures most multinational employers have b...