On October 21, 2025, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) released additional information regarding the $100,000 H-1B fee mandated by Presidential Proclamation dated September 19, 2025.
The easiest way to think of this fee is as a tariff on the importation of labor. Employers seeking to employ an H-1 worker who is abroad using an H-1B petition filed after September 21, 2025 must pay an additional $100,000 fee via the US Treasury’s website pay.gov.
The fee does not apply to H-1B petitions for employees who are present in the US and whose employers request to change their status to H-1B or extend their H-1B status. More importantly, USCIS clarified that the fee does not apply to an H-1B change of status or extension of status petition even if the H-1B worker subsequently departs the United States and seeks an H-1B visa from a US Embassy or Consulate abroad.
Practically speaking, this fee only applies to employers who use an H-1B visa petition to bring a foreign national to the United States. Current employers of H-1 workers who wish to continue to employ this worker need not worry about this fee, and can instead file an extension of status petition. Additionally, employers of F-1 students, H-4 Employment Authorization Card holders, or other nonimmigrants who wish to change their status to H-1B need not worry about the fee. These petitions are change of status petitions.
H-1B workers transferring from one employer to another may trigger the fee. Unemployed H-1B workers have a 60-day grace period to either find another job, find another nonimmigrant status, or depart the United States. H-1 workers that are unemployed for more than 60 days will likely be determined to be out of status and be required to seek a visa abroad. This determination will trigger the $100,000 fee. To avoid this fee, employers looking to onboard an H-1 worker should ensure that their prospective employee is either currently employed at their petitioning employer or has been unemployed for less than 45 days. While H-1B workers have a 60-day grace period, H-1B petitions take some time to prepare. The 45-day cutoff gives the employer time to prepare and file the petition within the 60 day grace period.
Finally, H-1 workers seeking to extend their stay or nonimmigrants seeking to change their status to H1 should refrain from international travel while their petition is pending. Departure from the United States while a change or extension of status petition is pending may cause USCIS to determine that the change or extension of stay portion of the petition has been abandoned. These petitions would then be converted to consular processing petitions and trigger the fee.
