The US has expanded the scope of a visa fee that could significantly raise immigration costs for large employers, with the USD 4,000 charge for H-1B petitions and USD 4,500 fee for L-1 petitions now set to apply to certain visa extension filings from September 9.The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the revised rule will cover employers that meet the following criteria:
- Have at least 50 employees in the US
- Have more than 50 per cent of their US workforce on H-1B or L-1 visas
For employers meeting these conditions, the fee will now apply not only to initial H-1B and L-1 petitions and certain change-of-employer petitions, but also to qualifying extension-of-stay petitions for existing employees.
Fee scope widened
Earlier, the 9-11 Response and Biometric Entry-Exit Fee generally applied to initial H-1B and L-1 petitions and certain cases involving a change of employer. Routine extension petitions filed by the same employer were generally exempt from this particular fee.DHS said the new interpretation corrects its earlier reading of the law and requires covered employers to pay the biometric fee for all qualifying extension-of-status petitions. Amended petitions that do not seek an extension of the worker’s authorised stay will continue to be exempt.The fee itself has not increased. Employers will pay USD 4,000 for each qualifying H-1B petition and USD 4,500 for each L-1 filing.DHS estimates the expanded collections could generate about USD 157.3 million annually, while separate estimates cited in the rule put additional collections at USD 37.9 million in fiscal 2026 and USD 40 million in fiscal 2027.The revenue is used to support the US Customs and Border Protection’s biometric entry-exit system, which uses technologies including facial comparison to track and verify foreign nationals entering and leaving the country.
Indian IT firms face higher costs
The change could have a disproportionate impact on major Indian IT services and consulting companies, which employ large numbers of Indian professionals in the US on H-1B and L-1 visas.For firms managing thousands of such workers, the fee could now become a recurring cost when eligible employees seek extensions with the same employerDHS data cited in the rule shows that about 27 per cent of H-1B filings by covered employers incurred the biometric fee between fiscal years 2018 and 2025.Under the expanded interpretation, the department estimates that around 75 per cent of their H-1B petitions would have been subject to the charge.The higher recurring cost could prompt companies to reassess the economics of retaining foreign workers in the US, particularly those facing multiple visa extensions.For Indian professionals, who form a large share of the US H-1B workforce and often face lengthy employment-based green card backlogs, the higher employer costs could influence decisions on retaining workers on long-term US assignments.
