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The Trump administration described the $100,000 H-1B payment as a one-time charge for a covered new petition—not an annual fee or a renewal charge. But that describes the administration’s policy, not whether the government can collect the payment today: a federal district court vacated the policy implementing it, and the First Circuit declined to pause that ruling while the appeal proceeds. As of an October 7, 2026 update from the University of Colorado Boulder, the payment was not currently required. The appeal was still pending.
What did the administration mean by a one-time H-1B charge?
In a September 21, 2025 FAQ, the White House said the payment applied once when an employer submitted a covered new H-1B petition. It was not charged every year and did not change the fees for H-1B renewals. The FAQ said the proclamation covered new petitions submitted after 12:01 a.m. Eastern daylight time on September 21, 2025, including petitions in the FY 2026 lottery and other new petitions filed after that cutoff.
The distinction matters because an H-1B visa, an H-1B petition and the supplemental payment are not the same thing. A visa stamp is used for travel and entry; an employer’s petition asks the government to authorize H-1B employment. The State Department said the restrictions concerned visa issuance and entry based on petitions filed with USCIS after the effective date. It also said no visas had been revoked under the proclamation. The White House FAQ separately excluded previously issued visas and petitions filed before the cutoff.
Which cases did the original policy address?
Proclamation 10973, signed September 19, 2025, took effect at 12:01 a.m. EDT on September 21. It set a $100,000 payment condition for covered H-1B specialty-occupation workers and directed the Department of Homeland Security to restrict decisions on unpaid petitions for workers outside the United States during the proclamation’s initial 12-month period. It also directed employers to obtain and retain proof of payment before filing.
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That policy did not mean every H-1B worker or every visa holder automatically owed $100,000. The relevant facts included the petition’s filing date, whether it was a new petition or a renewal or other filing, the beneficiary’s location and requested processing route, and the applicable agency instructions. A court order recounting agency guidance described some cases involving beneficiaries abroad without valid H-1B visas and petitions requesting consular processing, as well as certain in-country change-of-status, amendment or extension requests treated differently. Because litigation and agency implementation have since intervened, those descriptions should not be used as a current filing checklist.
| Situation | What the September 2025 White House clarification said |
|---|---|
| Previously issued H-1B visa | Not covered by the proclamation, according to the FAQ; the State Department said no visas had been revoked under it. |
| Petition filed before 12:01 a.m. EDT on September 21, 2025 | Not covered by the proclamation, according to the FAQ. |
| Covered new petition filed after the cutoff | The administration said the one-time payment accompanied the petition. |
| H-1B renewal | The FAQ said the proclamation did not change renewal fees. |
The proclamation allowed DHS to grant an exemption for an individual, all workers at a company, or all workers in an industry if the Secretary determined the hiring was in the national interest and would not threaten U.S. security or welfare. That was a discretionary exception, not an automatic exemption for a job type or employer.
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The $100,000 amount was a supplemental requirement, separate from ordinary statutory and agency fees that may apply to H-1B filings. It should also not be confused with a separate proposed $103,265 fee for cap-subject petitions that Yale described on September 23, 2026 as not in effect at that time.
Is the $100,000 payment required now?
As of October 7, 2026, the University of Colorado Boulder’s international-student office reported that the payment was not currently required. That update said the order blocking collection remained in effect and the government’s appeal was pending.
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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →The legal sequence explains why the administration’s extension does not by itself answer whether the payment can be collected:
- June 8, 2026: The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted summary judgment to the plaintiff states and vacated the agency policy implementing the payment. The court concluded that the policy exceeded statutory authority and violated the Administrative Procedure Act. Judge Leo T. Sorokin wrote that “the substance and application of the $100,000 payment reveal that it is a tax, regardless of what the payment is called.” That was the district court’s reasoning, not a final ruling by the Supreme Court.
- July 24, 2026: The First Circuit denied the government’s request to stay the district court’s order while its appeal proceeded. The appeals court found the government had not made the required strong showing on likelihood of success for that interim-relief request. It did not decide the appeal’s final merits.
- September 23, 2026: Proclamation 11069 was published in the Federal Register, extending the administration’s stated restriction through September 21, 2027, absent another extension. The extension repeats the payment condition, but it does not itself resolve the effect of the court orders.
There is also a conflicting-court caveat: Yale’s September 23 update said collection was blocked while noting that another federal court had allowed the fee to stand. The available updates therefore do not support a blanket claim that the payment is permanently gone or that the September 2026 extension made it collectible. The latest dated update located for this article reported that it was not currently required, with the appeal pending; employers and workers facing a filing should check current USCIS instructions and court orders before acting.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What changed alongside the extension?
Proclamation 11069 also discussed other H-1B program changes, which are separate from the $100,000 payment:
- Weighted selection: The proclamation said DHS had adopted a weighted selection process for cap-subject H-1B petitions, in effect for FY 2027, that prioritizes higher-skilled and higher-paid workers.
- Proposed prevailing-wage rule: It said the Department of Labor published a proposed rule on March 27, 2026. A proposed rule is not the same as a final rule.
The proclamation reported that more than 700 petitions had been accompanied by the $100,000 payment since the 2025 measure took effect. It also reported that combined H-1B registrations from the largest IT staffing and outsourcing firms fell from 24,946 to 2,055. Those are figures reported by the administration; the registration comparison alone does not establish that the payment caused the decline.
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Because the rule’s written terms, agency implementation and court status are distinct—and the appeal remained pending in the latest dated update—do not rely on the 2025 FAQ alone for a current filing decision. Confirm the current official instructions and the case-specific facts, including:
- when the petition will be filed and whether it is a new petition, renewal, amendment or extension;
- whether the beneficiary is in the United States or abroad, and whether the filing requests consular or other processing;
- whether an existing visa is involved, noting that a visa stamp and petition approval are different;
- whether an individual, employer or industry exception has actually been granted; and
- the latest USCIS guidance and court orders, rather than assuming the extension alone determines collection status.
For context, H-1B is a temporary nonimmigrant category for specialty occupations requiring highly specialized knowledge and at least a bachelor’s degree or equivalent in the specific specialty. The district court order described the ordinary annual cap as 65,000 places for most cap-subject employers, plus 20,000 for qualifying U.S. advanced-degree holders; higher-education institutions and certain research organizations are cap-exempt. Those cap rules are separate from the disputed supplemental payment.
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