November 25, 2025 - 11:15 AM

New $100,000 H-1B Fee in Effect 

Written by Catherine Reynolds

Every year USCIS approves 85,000 new H-1B petitions for non-U.S. workers who have been offered employment for a position that typically requires at least a bachelor’s degree and is in a highly specialized field. The H-1B process requires the worker to be selected in the H-1B lottery held in March, and if selected the employer must submit an H-1B petition to USCIS and pay various USCIS fees that total close to $3500 for first time filers, including an anti-fraud fee and American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement fee.

Recently, on September 19, 2025, President Trump issued a Presidential Proclamation requiring an additional $100,000 fee to be paid for each H-1B worker.  This fee is in addition to the USCIS filing fees already required and went into effect on September 21, 2025.

While the fee does not affect most of the H-1B workers who already are in the U.S. in H-1B status, it has had a major effect on companies seeking to employ H-1B workers.

This new H-1B fee applies to the following H-1B workers or future H-1B workers:

  • Those who already were selected in the H-1B lottery for fiscal year 2026, and had an H-1B petition filed with USCIS, but were outside the U.S. and did not yet have an H-1B visa issued by September 21, 2025. 
  • H-1B employees who have an H-1B petition approved for the first time but request consular processing for H-1B visa issuance.
  • H-1B employees who have an H-1B petition approved for the first time, but depart the U.S. while the H-1B petition is pending.

There still are several scenarios where the new fee does not apply, which mainly are when the H-1B worker had already been granted H-1B status and is in the U.S. before the fee rule went into effect. 

  • The worker’s H-1B petition requests a change of status from one non-immigrant status (such as F-1) to H-1B status and the petition is approved. 
  • The worker already has H-1B status in the U.S. and an employer files another H-1B petition to request an extension or an amendment to the worker’s H-1B status and the petition is approved.   
  • The H-1B worker seeks to enter the U.S. pursuant to a new H-1B visa but previously, and prior to September 21, 2025, they had H-1B status pursuant to a current valid H-1B visa. 

In addition, the new fee can be waived if the H-1B applicant first is granted “a national interest exception” by the Secretary of U.S. Department of Homeland Security who under “extraordinarily rare circumstances” determines that:

  • A particular beneficiary’s presence in the United States as an H-1B worker is in the national interest;
  • No “American” is available to fill the role;
  • Requiring the petitioning employer to make the payment on the foreign national’s behalf would significantly undermine the interests of the United States; AND
  • Beneficiary does not pose a threat to the Security or welfare of the United States.

There are no reports yet of the National Interest Exception being used or the process provided by USDHS. 

Payment of the $100,000 H-1B fee

There are very technical rules for paying the $100,000 such as:

  • The fee is specific to each H-1B worker, and must be paid online using pay.gov and following the instructions on pay.gov website: https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/1772005176
  • The passport information entered into the payment form for the intended beneficiary must match the passport information the beneficiary presents at admission according to the payment form.
  • Petitions subject to the fee will be denied if submitted without proof of payment from pay.gov or evidence of a national interest exception.
  • The fee will be refunded to the petitioner if the petition is denied – as reported on the government instructions.

Although the government will answer questions about the payment by email at H1BVisaRRP@hq.dhs.gov. the technical aspects to fee payment should be followed closely.

Due to the huge outcry by H-1B employers across many industries about this new $100,000 fee and how it was implemented, there is pending litigation in federal court seeking to strike it down.  However, for now this H-1B fee requirement is in effect, and will need to be considered when planning for the upcoming H-1B filing season in 2026, or filing any H-1B petitions in the future.