Is the $100,000 H-1B Fee Still Being Charged? Current Status for Employers

No. The $100,000 H-1B visa fee is not being collected as of October 2026.

But the situation is not settled. The fee was struck down by one federal court in June, extended by presidential proclamation in September, then blocked again by a second court in California in late September. The government has appealed both rulings. The fee could come back. And separately, DHS has proposed a completely different $103,265 fee through formal rulemaking that has nothing to do with the ongoing court cases.

If you are an employer with pending H-1B petitions, open hiring decisions, or overseas candidates you stopped considering because of that $100,000 price tag, here is the full current picture and what to do with it.

What the $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee Was and Who It Applied To

The fee came from a Presidential Proclamation signed in September 2025. It applied only to new H-1B petitions for workers physically outside the United States, specifically where approval required consular notification.

It never applied to:

• Extensions of existing H-1B status filed inside the US
• Transfers filed inside the US
• Amended petitions filed inside the US
• Change of status applications filed inside the US
• Workers already holding valid H-1B status re-entering the US

That scope matters. Most employers were not affected for their existing H-1B employees already in the country. The H-1B visa fee increase targeted one specific scenario: new overseas hires entering the US for the first time, or cases requiring consular processing abroad.

The Court Timeline: How the Fee Got Blocked

The back-and-forth has created real confusion. Here is what actually happened, in order.

June 8, 2026: A federal district court in Massachusetts (Judge Leo Sorokin) vacated the $100,000 fee, ruling it constituted an unlawful tax. Courts cannot be used to implement what is functionally a new revenue measure without congressional authorization.

June 12 to 24, 2026: The government appealed. Judge Sorokin briefly reinstated the fee during the transition. For a short window, the H-1B fee lawsuit was unresolved and USCIS continued collecting it for petitions requiring consular notification.

July 24, 2026: The First Circuit Court of Appeals declined to reinstate the fee while the appeal proceeds. The court’s order: “We deny.” From that point, USCIS stopped collecting the $100,000 H-1B fee on new petitions.

August 25, 2026: DHS proposed a separate $103,265 fee through formal rulemaking. This is not the same fee. The comment period closed September 24, 2026. No final rule has been published.

September 18, 2026: The President signed Proclamation 11069, extending the original $100,000 H-1B fee framework through September 21, 2027. On paper, this extended the fee for 12 more months. In practice, it does not override the court order, which remains in force. The H-1B visa fee update that actually mattered happened in court, not through the proclamation.

September 30, 2026: A federal court in the Northern District of California issued its own ruling blocking USCIS, CBP, and the State Department from enforcing the fee under both the 2025 proclamation and its September 2026 extension.

October 9, 2026: The government appealed the California ruling.

October 14 to 27, 2026 (now): Employers do not have to pay the $100,000 fee. USCIS is actively approving H-1B petitions filed without it, including cases where premium processing windows had already passed without action while the fee’s status was uncertain.

Current H-1B Visa Fee Structure: What Employers Actually Pay Now

With the $100,000 fee blocked, the current H-1B visa fee schedule for most employers runs approximately $3,380 in mandatory government fees. Here is the breakdown:

The total mandatory fee for most employers without premium processing is approximately $3,380. With optional premium processing: $6,345.

The $103,265 proposed fee is a different mechanism entirely. If finalized through rulemaking, it would carry the force of a properly enacted regulation rather than an executive proclamation, making it significantly harder to challenge on the same unlawful-tax grounds used to block the current fee. There is no final rule yet.

What Employers Should Do Right Now

The fee pause creates a real window. How you use it depends on where your hiring situation sits.

Check every pending fee-subject petition. Some petitions stalled during the June to July period when the fee’s status was unresolved, even with premium processing in place. USCIS has been clearing that backlog since the First Circuit ruling. Any petition that crossed 15 business days of premium processing without action should be flagged and followed up on immediately.

Move quickly on approved petitions. An approved petition is not a visa stamp. Consulate appointment slots fill fast, and the window between approval and actual visa issuance is where delays compound. If you have approvals sitting unused, act on them now.

Revisit overseas candidate pipelines you paused. The most direct opportunity is for employers who put overseas candidates on hold because the $100,000 fee made the hire economically impossible. Those candidates are still available. The fee blocking them is not currently being collected.

Build contingency into every overseas hire plan. The government is actively appealing both court rulings. A Supreme Court order could reinstate the $100,000 H-1B fee without warning. Any overseas candidate who needs to be inside the US should be moved through the process while the window is open, not scheduled for “sometime next quarter.”

The $103,265 Fee: Why It Is Different and Why It Matters

This is the part most current H-1B fee news coverage is missing.

While the $100,000 proclamation fee sits in litigation, DHS proposed a separate $103,265 H-1B fee through formal notice-and-comment rulemaking on August 25, 2026. If finalized, this fee would be a properly enacted regulation. The legal challenge that worked against the proclamation fee (unlawful tax without congressional authorization) is harder to apply to a fee established through formal rulemaking under an existing statutory authority.

No final rule has been published. The comment period closed September 24, 2026. The rulemaking process typically takes months after comments close. But employers should understand this is a separate and potentially more durable mechanism than the current blocked proclamation.

What This Means If You Are Also Considering India

For employers whose response to the H-1B visa fee increase was to start evaluating India as a hiring market, the fee pause does not change the underlying economics.

Even with the $100,000 fee currently blocked, the fully loaded cost of a mid-level US software engineer runs $150,000 to $220,000 per year. A comparable engineer in Bangalore costs $45,000 to $60,000 in salary plus an EOR fee, totaling roughly $52,000 to $67,000 per year. The $100,000 fee was one data point in that comparison. It was not the entire argument.

The H-1B fee update creates a legitimate short-term opportunity for specific overseas candidates already in your pipeline. It does not change the structural case for building a technical team in India rather than relying on a visa program that has been unpredictable for three consecutive years.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is the $100,000 H-1B visa fee still in effect?
No. As of October 2026, the fee is not being collected. A federal court vacated it on June 8, 2026. The First Circuit declined to reinstate it on July 24, 2026. A California federal court issued a separate block on September 30, 2026. USCIS is approving petitions without the payment. The government is appealing both rulings.

Q: What did the September 2026 proclamation change?
On September 18, 2026, President Trump signed Proclamation 11069 extending the $100,000 H-1B fee framework through September 21, 2027. But the extension does not override the court orders blocking it. The fee is extended on paper. It is not being collected in practice. USCIS has confirmed petitions filed now do not require the $100,000 payment.

Q: Could the $100,000 H-1B fee come back?
Yes. The government is actively appealing both court rulings and has stated it intends to collect the fee if the court orders are lifted. A Supreme Court order could reinstate it at any time without a full briefing schedule. Employers moving overseas candidates through the process should treat the window as open, not permanent.

Q: What is the $103,265 H-1B fee and is it the same thing?
No, it is separate. DHS proposed a $103,265 fee through formal rulemaking on August 25, 2026, with a comment period that closed September 24, 2026. It is not yet a final rule. If finalized, it would be a properly enacted regulation rather than an executive proclamation, which makes it more difficult to challenge on the same legal grounds used to block the current fee.

Q: Which H-1B petitions were never subject to the $100,000 fee?
Extensions, transfers, amendments, and change-of-status petitions filed inside the US were never covered. The fee only applied to new petitions for workers physically outside the US where approval required consular notification. Current H-1B holders with valid status traveling abroad and returning are unaffected.

Q: What are the current H-1B filing fees employers must pay?
With the $100,000 fee blocked, mandatory government fees total approximately $3,380 for most employers. That covers the base filing fee ($780), ACWIA training fee ($1,500 for employers with 26 or more employees), fraud prevention fee ($500), and asylum program fee ($600). Optional premium processing adds $2,965.