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The Trump administration’s $100,000 H-1B payment policy has been extended through September 21, 2027, but its legal and operational status is not settled nationwide by the available court and agency records. A federal district court vacated the implementing policy in a multistate case, and the First Circuit declined to pause that ruling while the government appeals. That denial was not a final appellate decision on the merits.
What the $100,000 H-1B policy does
President Donald Trump issued Proclamation 10973 on September 19, 2025, invoking sections 212(f) and 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Rather than setting an ordinary visa application charge, the proclamation restricted the entry of certain H-1B specialty-occupation workers unless the related petition was accompanied or supplemented by a $100,000 payment, subject to a national-interest exception. The original restriction took effect at 12:01 a.m. EDT on September 21, 2025, and was initially set to expire after 12 months unless extended. The proclamation describes the restriction and its terms.
The distinction matters: the proclamation established an entry restriction and payment condition; subsequent agency guidance described how covered petitions were to be processed and how payment was to be made. Calling it a “fee” is common shorthand, but can obscure that legal structure.
Who the administration said had to pay
The White House’s original explanation
The White House FAQ issued September 21, 2025, said the payment applied to new H-1B petitions submitted after the restriction took effect. It said previously issued visas, petitions filed earlier, and renewals were outside the requirement, and that existing visa holders could continue traveling into and out of the United States. These were the administration’s statements in that FAQ, rather than a final judicial determination of every category. The White House FAQ sets out that initial explanation.
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More detailed USCIS guidance described by a court
A Northern District of California order recounts later USCIS guidance applying the payment to new petitions filed after the effective date for beneficiaries outside the United States who did not have a valid H-1B visa. The guidance also covered some beneficiaries already in the United States if USCIS determined they were not eligible for a change of status or an amendment or extension of stay. The court’s account says USCIS directed petitioners to pay through Pay.gov before filing and described a narrow national-interest exception. The court order recounts the agency guidance; it is not itself a nationwide agency instruction.
That later description is more specific than the FAQ’s broad outline. The available materials do not establish how every individual petition category has been treated after the litigation and extension, so employers and applicants should not infer current treatment solely from the original FAQ.
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The administration’s stated rationale and reported effects
The White House has framed the restriction as a response to alleged H-1B program abuse, wage suppression, and displacement of U.S. workers by lower-paid labor. Those are the administration’s policy claims, not findings that courts have established as fact.
In its September 2026 extension proclamation, the White House reported changes in registrations and selections that it attributed to the payment requirement together with a weighted selection process. The figures below are administration-reported; the proclamation does not establish that the payment alone caused the changes or independently validate them. The September 2026 proclamation contains the figures and the administration’s account.
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- Combined registrations by the largest IT staffing and outsourcing firms fell from 24,946 to 2,055, a reported 92% decrease.
- Registrations for beneficiaries with at least a U.S. master’s degree rose from 45.1% for FY 2026 to 66.1% for FY 2027.
- Job offers at the two highest wage levels accounted for about 46.3% of FY 2027 H-1B registration selections; the lowest wage level accounted for 17.8%.
- The White House said more than 700 petitions had made the $100,000 payment since the original proclamation took effect.
The policy was extended, but court challenges affect its operation
On September 18, 2026, Trump extended the 2025 proclamation for another 12 months, through September 21, 2027. The extension restates the payment condition and entry restriction for covered workers outside the country. It keeps the administration’s policy officially extended; it does not determine the effect of court orders or pending appeals.
The most consequential ruling described in the available record came in a lawsuit brought by 20 states. On June 8, 2026, the District of Massachusetts granted the states summary judgment, declared the implementing policy unlawful, and vacated it. On July 24, 2026, the First Circuit denied the government’s request to stay that judgment while its appeal proceeded. The court’s order said, “We deny the motion.” That ruling left the district court’s judgment unstayed at that stage; it was not a final appellate ruling on the underlying merits.
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How the separate legal challenges differ
The disputes involve different plaintiffs and procedural stages. The multistate case has a district-court merits judgment and an appellate stay ruling; other challenges should not be treated as if they have reached the same point.
| Case or challenge | Plaintiffs and arguments described | Procedural position established by the available record |
|---|---|---|
| 20-state challenge | The states argued that agency implementation violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), exceeded statutory authority, and was unconstitutional. The First Circuit’s account describes state plaintiffs’ claimed harms to public colleges and universities, schools, and health systems, including staffing difficulties. | The District of Massachusetts granted summary judgment to the states and vacated the implementing policy on June 8, 2026. The First Circuit denied a stay pending appeal on July 24, 2026; that was not a final merits decision. The First Circuit order describes the district court’s ruling and the parties’ arguments. Read the First Circuit order. |
| Global Nurse Force et al. v. Trump | The Northern District of California order discusses claims that the President and agencies lacked authority, and that agency policies violated the APA through excess authority, arbitrary-and-capricious action, and failure to use notice-and-comment rulemaking. | The cited order establishes that the case and those claims exist; the materials summarized here do not establish a final merits judgment resolving them. Read the Northern District of California order. |
| U.S. Chamber of Commerce challenge | The Chamber’s case is a separate business-group challenge. The available case summary does not state its full legal theory here. | The Chamber’s case page lists its challenge in the D.C. Circuit as pending and records appellate filings through February 2026. The record summarized here does not establish a final merits disposition. See the Chamber’s case page. |
The state plaintiffs’ account of staffing effects is not proof that every school, health system, or employer experienced the same impact. Likewise, the existence of separate lawsuits does not mean each has produced a judgment invalidating the policy.
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Is the $100,000 payment still in effect?
As of the records summarized through October 3, 2026, the administration has extended the proclamation through September 21, 2027, while the multistate district-court judgment vacating the implementing policy remains unstayed following the First Circuit’s denial of a stay. Those facts do not establish the policy’s complete nationwide operational status across all appeals, agency implementation steps, and petition categories. The extension does not erase the litigation, and the stay denial should not be described as a final appellate invalidation of the proclamation.
For a particular petition, check current USCIS instructions and the relevant court docket before relying on a generalized answer. The White House FAQ explains the administration’s original scope; the later USCIS guidance as recounted by the California court and subsequent court orders address different questions and dates.
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