Overview
- The president signed a proclamation on Friday extending the 2025 rule through September 21, 2027 so that many H-1B petitions filed for workers outside the United States must be accompanied or supplemented by a $100,000 payment.
- The extension exempts certain cases, including H-1Bs for people already in the U.S. on student visas and renewals, and allows the Homeland Security secretary to waive the payment for hires judged to be in the U.S. national interest.
- The fee and the administration's implementing guidance remain legally contested: a federal judge blocked collection in June and a Boston-based appeals court and other courts are now reviewing separate challenges, including one from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
- The White House cites agency data showing a steep fall in filings by large IT staffing and outsourcing firms and a shift toward higher‑wage, higher‑degree beneficiaries, while the administration has also directed agencies to tighten interagency review of H-1B petitions.
- The move affects populations concentrated in technology hiring, especially Indian nationals who made roughly 70–71% of recent H-1B approvals, and comes as DHS has proposed a separate roughly $103,000 fee under different authority.