File photo: US President Donald TrumpIn a major development especially for Indian tech professionals who constitute a fair chunk of H-1B visa holders and American sponsoring companies, US President Donald Trump has issued a fresh presidential proclamation extending the controversial $100K H-1B visa fee for another 12 months, stretching the policy through Sept 21, 2027. However, immigration attorneys emphasize that despite the White House's aggressive push, the fee remains legally blocked by a federal court order.
Mitch Wexler, senior counsel at Fragomen, a global immigration law firm explained, “The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) remains barred from collecting the $100K H-1B fee under the Sept 2025 proclamation, which was due to expire on Sept 21, 2026. Since the new proclamation is issued as an extension, USCIS should be barred from collecting the $100K fee under the new proclamation as well.
If USCIS takes the position that the new proclamation is outside of the purview of the existing court order, plaintiffs in the ongoing litigation are likely to quickly challenge that view.” Greg Siskind, co-founder at Siskind Susser, an immigration law firm pointed out that the language is virtually identical in the new proclamation, but the new version states that the fee applies to people seeking admission from outside the US (via consulates or ports of entry)—turning previous agency guidance into official proclamation text.
The preamble to this proclamation explicitly states that: “Finally, my Administration continues to explore other complementary efforts that would, among other things, reform the H-1B program and assist with cost-recovery for immigration program administration.” Siskind adds that this signals that the Trump administration may try to implement permanent high fees through the standard rule making process of notice-and-comment.
Read also: US proposes $103,265 H-1B fee: Hiring set to become more costlyWexler adds, “In addition, last month, USCIS separately proposed a regulation that would impose a fee of more than $103K on all cap-subjectH-1B petitions. That fee would be separate from and in addition to the $100K H-1B proclamation fee, where applicable, if the proclamation fee were to be reinstated by further court order.”
Thus, if the proclamation fee is ultimately revived by higher courts and the separate USCIS cap-subject fee rule goes into final effect, affected employers could theoretically face cumulative financial barriers totaling over $200K per petition (application) for sponsoring H-1B cap workers. Core takeaways: The Extension: The White House has extended the Sept 19, 2025 proclamation imposing a $100K fee on certain H-1B petitions through Sept 21, 2027.
