H-1B $100K Fee: Who Pays, Who Is Exempt, and Added Costs

The H-1B $100,000 fee is a one-time payment that must accompany every new H-1B petition filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on or after 12:01 a.m. Eastern on September 21, 2025. It comes from a Presidential Proclamation, not an act of Congress, and it sits on top of the standard filing fees that already run into the thousands. Sponsoring a new H-1B worker now routinely costs an employer more than $105,000 before attorney fees.

Where the Fee Comes From

On September 19, 2025, the President issued a proclamation titled “Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers,” imposing the $100,000 payment as a condition of eligibility for new H-1B petitions. The proclamation invokes Sections 212(f) and 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, meaning it operates through presidential authority over entry rather than through a new statute.¹

The stated purpose is to “impose higher costs on companies seeking to use the H-1B program in order to address the abuse of that program while still permitting companies to hire the best of the best temporary foreign workers.”¹ The $100,000 is a payment, not a salary threshold. It is not a minimum wage figure, and it is not a legislative proposal.

What the Fee Does Not Apply To

The $100,000 payment attaches only to new H-1B petitions. USCIS has confirmed it does not apply to renewals or extensions, and it does not change any fees associated with maintaining existing H-1B status.² It also does not touch petitions submitted before September 21, 2025, or H-1B visas that were already issued on that date. Workers already in H-1B status who need an extension, an amendment, or a routine renewal are outside the scope of this fee.

Who Is Exempt

The proclamation does not carve out automatic exemptions for universities, research institutions, nonprofits, physicians, or any other category of employer. Instead, it gives the Secretary of Homeland Security discretion to waive the fee for an individual worker, all workers at a specific company, or all workers in an entire industry, but only where the Secretary determines that hiring those workers “is in the national interest and does not pose a threat to the security or welfare of the United States.”¹

In practice, this means exemptions are handled case by case rather than built into the rule for defined categories. Employers in sectors that were historically treated as cap-exempt under the H-1B program should not assume the same treatment applies to the $100,000 fee, because the proclamation’s exemption mechanism is separate from the statutory H-1B cap exemptions.

The Legal Challenge

The fee is being challenged in court. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed a lawsuit arguing the payment is unlawful because it overrides the Immigration and Nationality Act’s provisions governing H-1B fees, which are supposed to reflect processing costs rather than function as a policy tool to discourage hiring. How the courts rule could determine whether the fee stays in its current form, gets modified, or is struck down. Employers making decisions in the meantime should track the litigation, because the ground here is genuinely unsettled.

Who Actually Pays the Fee

The employer pays. Department of Labor regulations treat H-1B filing fees, attorney costs, and other petition-related expenses as employer business expenses, and they cannot be passed to the worker if doing so would reduce the worker’s pay below the required wage rate.³ The required wage is whichever is higher: the actual wage the employer pays other workers in the same position, or the prevailing wage for that occupation in the area.

The DOL specifically prohibits deducting the costs of the Labor Condition Application, the Form I-129 petition itself, and the premium processing fee from an H-1B worker’s pay.⁴ Whether the $100,000 proclamation fee can lawfully be shifted to the employee is a newer question without settled agency guidance. The proclamation requires the payment to accompany the petition, and the employer is the entity that files. Given the existing DOL framework treating petition-related costs as employer business expenses, most immigration attorneys are treating the $100,000 as an employer obligation. Employers awaiting definitive guidance should consult counsel before attempting any cost-sharing arrangement.

How the Fee Stacks With Existing H-1B Costs

The $100,000 is layered on top of a set of filing fees that were already substantial. For a new H-1B petition, an employer is typically paying:

The Form I-129 base filing fee, at the amount listed on the current USCIS fee schedule (Form G-1055), with reduced rates for small employers and nonprofits.⁵
The ACWIA fee: $750 for employers with 25 or fewer full-time employees, or $1,500 for larger employers. Qualified nonprofits are exempt.
The Fraud Prevention and Detection fee: a flat $500 on initial H-1B petitions and petitions to change employers.⁶
The Asylum Program Fee: $600 for most employers, reduced to $300 for small employers with 25 or fewer full-time equivalent employees.⁵

For a large employer, those standard fees run roughly $3,400 to $3,600 before any attorney involvement. Add the $100,000 proclamation fee and the government cost of a single new H-1B petition passes $103,000. Small employers with reduced base rates still owe the full $100,000 unless they receive a DHS exemption.

The H-1B Dependent Employer Surcharge

Companies with 50 or more U.S. employees where more than half hold H-1B or L-1 status pay an additional $4,000 on each new H-1B petition or petition to change employers, under Public Law 114-113.⁷ For a dependent employer filing a new petition, the combined government fees now sit north of $107,000 per worker before legal costs.

Optional: Premium Processing

Employers who need a faster adjudication can file Form I-907 for premium processing, which commits USCIS to take action, meaning approve, deny, or issue a request for additional evidence, within 15 business days.⁸ Effective March 1, 2026, the premium processing fee for Form I-129 is $2,965. It is optional and separate from the $100,000. A company using it on a new petition is looking at total government fees above $106,000.

Attorney fees for preparing and filing an H-1B petition typically range from $1,500 to $5,000, depending on complexity and market. Under the same DOL rules that govern the filing fees themselves, attorney costs tied to the petition are employer business expenses and cannot be deducted from the worker’s pay in a way that drops earnings below the required wage.

1
The White House. Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers
2
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. H-1B FAQ
3
eCFR. 20 CFR 655.731 – What Is the First LCA Requirement, Regarding Wages?
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 62H – What Are the Rules Concerning Deductions From an H-1B Workers Pay
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. H and L Filing Fees for Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-129 Instructions
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Fee Increase for Certain H-1B and L-1 Petitions (Public Law 114-113)
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. How Do I Request Premium Processing?