The H-1B registration fee rose from $10 to $215 per beneficiary starting with the FY2026 lottery, a 2,050% increase over a single decade. A separate $100,000-per-petition fee, created by a September 2025 presidential proclamation and extended through September 21, 2027, remains legally blocked as of this writing after a federal court vacated it in June 2026.
H-1B Visa Fees in 2026
H-1B visa fees have moved more in the past three years than in the program’s previous two decades combined. What started as a flat $10 electronic registration fee has been reshaped into a multi-layered cost structure: a $215 registration fee, a standard package of USCIS petition fees now totaling roughly $3,595 for most large employers, and, hanging over the entire system, a disputed $100,000 per-petition fee that courts have blocked, Washington has extended anyway, and a separate agency rule has proposed replacing with something even larger.
This report lays out exactly where H-1B fees stand heading into the FY2027 cap season: the registration fee’s full decade-long history, the standard petition cost breakdown employers actually budget for, the legal status of the $100,000 proclamation fee as of this writing, and how many workers have competed for H-1B slots each year as costs have climbed. Every figure below is sourced to USCIS, the Federal Register, federal court filings, or named immigration-law firm reporting on those official sources, not to an independent estimate.
The fee picture has become unusually hard to track precisely because so much of it is currently in legal limbo. Unlike a routine USCIS fee adjustment, which typically takes effect on a published date and stays in place, the $100,000 proclamation fee has been signed, enforced, challenged, vacated, appealed, and then extended again within the span of about twelve months, a pace of change that has left employers, attorneys, and even USCIS’s own public guidance updating their advice every few weeks.
Interesting Facts About H-1B Visa Fees 2026
H-1B REGISTRATION FEE, 2015 vs 2026 ($ per beneficiary)
2015-2023 (no fee; paper filing) $0
Dec 2019-Mar 2024 (e-registration) █ $10
Mar 2025-present ██████████████████████ $215
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original e-registration fee (2019-2024) | $10 per beneficiary |
| Current registration fee (since FY2026 lottery) | $215 per beneficiary, a 2,050% increase |
| Standard 2026-27 total government fees, large employer | $3,595 per selected petition |
| $100,000 proclamation fee status, as of this writing | Blocked by federal court order |
| $100,000 fee’s new expiration date (if reinstated) | September 21, 2027 |
| Separate DHS-proposed cap-subject fee | $103,265, proposed August 2026 |
| FY2025 registrations (most recent full lottery) | 470,342, with 135,137 (29%) selected |
| Annual statutory H-1B cap | 85,000 (65,000 general + 20,000 advanced-degree) |
Source: USCIS fee schedules; Federal Register; U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, State of California v. Mullin; immigration law firm compilations, September 2026.
The jump from $10 to $215 for registration alone represents a 2,050% increase, but that fee is only the entry ticket to the H-1B lottery, not the cost of an actual visa. Once an employer wins the lottery and files a full petition, government fees for a typical large employer now total $3,595, covering the base petition fee, training fee, anti-fraud fee, and asylum program fee, a package that did not exist in its current form a decade ago.
The far larger, far more contested figure is the $100,000 fee created by a September 2025 presidential proclamation. As of this writing, that fee is not enforceable: a federal court vacated the underlying policy on June 8, 2026, and the First Circuit Court of Appeals declined to reinstate it on July 24, 2026. The administration nonetheless issued a new proclamation on September 18, 2026, extending the fee’s authorization through September 21, 2027, a move expected to trigger fresh litigation rather than settle the question.
H-1B Registration Fee History: 10 Years in 2026
H-1B FEE TIMELINE, KEY MILESTONES
Pre-2020 Paper filing, no separate registration fee
Dec 2019 Electronic registration created, $10 fee set
2020-2024 $10 fee applies across 5 lottery cycles
Apr 2024 I-129, premium processing fees rise; $215 fee finalized
Mar 2025 $215 registration fee takes effect (FY2026 lottery)
Sep 2025 $100,000 proclamation fee announced
Jun 2026 $100,000 fee vacated by federal court
Sep 2026 $100,000 fee extended via new proclamation, still blocked
| Year | Registration Fee Milestone |
|---|---|
| Before 2020 | No electronic registration; full paper petitions required for the lottery |
| December 8, 2019 | USCIS final rule sets the e-registration fee at $10 |
| 2020-2024 | $10 fee applies across five consecutive lottery cycles |
| April 1, 2024 | USCIS fee schedule finalizes the $215 registration fee for future cycles |
| March 2025 | $215 fee takes effect for the first time, for the FY2026 lottery |
| March 4-19, 2026 | FY2027 registration window; $215 fee continues to apply |
Source: USCIS Fee Schedule Final Rule; Federal Register; immigration law firm client alerts, 2024-2026.
For the first several years after the H-1B lottery went electronic in 2020, the registration fee was a nominal $10 per beneficiary, a number small enough that it did little to discourage employers from registering candidates broadly, including, according to DHS’s own later justification, large numbers of duplicate registrations for the same individual filed by different shell entities. That $10 fee held steady through five full lottery cycles before USCIS finalized the jump to $215 in an April 2024 rule, a change that did not actually take effect until the March 2025 registration window for the FY2026 cap.
The fee increase arrived alongside other structural changes aimed at the same abuse DHS cited: a shift to a beneficiary-centric selection process, where each individual person is entered into the lottery once regardless of how many employers register them, replacing the older system where multiple registrations for the same person multiplied their odds of selection. Registration numbers fell sharply the following cycle, from a record 780,884 registrations in FY2024 to 470,342 in FY2025, a drop DHS and most immigration attorneys attribute primarily to the anti-fraud measures rather than the fee increase itself, though the fee likely played some role in discouraging low-probability or speculative registrations.
The decade-long trajectory looks starkest when the registration fee is set beside the other major H-1B cost components that rose over the same window. The I-129 base petition fee itself moved from $460 to $780 on April 1, 2024, the same fee schedule overhaul that finalized the future $215 registration charge, and premium processing climbed from $2,500 to $2,805 in that same rule. None of these increases happened in isolation; they were bundled into a single comprehensive USCIS fee rule that touched nearly every form in the employment-based immigration system, not H-1B filings alone.
Standard H-1B Petition Fees for Employers in 2026-27
H-1B PETITION FEE BREAKDOWN, LARGE EMPLOYER ($)
Registration fee ██ $215
I-129 base fee ████████ $780
ACWIA training fee █████████████ $1,500
Fraud fee █████ $500
Asylum Program Fee ██████ $600
TOTAL ███████████████████████████ $3,595
| Fee Component | 2026-27 Amount | Who Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Registration fee | $215 | Per beneficiary, during the March lottery window |
| I-129 base petition fee | $780 | Standard rate for most employers |
| ACWIA training fee | $1,500 | Employers with 26+ full-time employees |
| Fraud Prevention and Detection fee | $500 | Flat fee, most employers |
| Asylum Program Fee | $600 | Employers with 26+ employees |
| Total standard government fees | $3,595 | Large employer, per selected petition |
| Optional premium processing | $2,805 | 15 business-day decision guarantee |
Source: USCIS Form I-129 Fee Schedule; immigration law firm cost breakdowns, 2026.
A large employer filing a cap-subject H-1B petition in the 2026-27 season faces $3,595 in mandatory government fees once a beneficiary clears the lottery: the $215 registration fee paid months earlier, a $780 base I-129 filing fee, a $1,500 training fee that funds the American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act program, a flat $500 anti-fraud fee, and a $600 Asylum Program Fee added to the schedule in 2024. Smaller employers, generally those with fewer than 26 full-time employees, qualify for reduced rates on several of these components, most notably a lower training fee and a reduced or waived Asylum Program Fee for nonprofit and small-employer filers.
Employers wanting a faster decision can add premium processing, now $2,805 after a 2024 increase from $2,500, which guarantees USCIS will issue a decision, approval, denial, or a Request for Evidence, within 15 business days rather than the standard, often multi-month, processing queue. None of these standard fees include the separate, far larger $100,000 proclamation fee discussed below, which, when and if enforceable, applies only to a specific subset of petitions rather than to every H-1B filing. For the fuller picture of how these costs fit into the broader US visa system, the US visa statistics report breaks down issuance volumes and processing times across every major visa category, not H-1B alone.
Small employers and nonprofits see a meaningfully different total. An employer with fewer than 26 full-time employees typically pays a reduced training fee of roughly half the standard rate, and certain nonprofit research and higher-education petitioners are exempt from the Asylum Program Fee entirely, since that fee was designed to fund asylum-system processing costs rather than to apply uniformly across every category of H-1B sponsor. These reductions mean the effective government-fee total for a small employer can run closer to $2,000 than the $3,595 large-employer figure, a gap worth confirming against current USCIS fee tables before budgeting a specific petition.
The $100,000 H-1B Proclamation Fee: Timeline in 2026
LEGAL STATUS OF THE $100,000 FEE, 2025-2026
Sep 19, 2025 Proclamation signed
Sep 21, 2025 Fee takes effect
Jun 8, 2026 Federal court vacates the policy
Jul 24, 2026 First Circuit declines to reinstate
Sep 18, 2026 New proclamation extends fee to 2027
Sep 2026 Fee remains blocked despite extension
| Date | Legal Development |
|---|---|
| September 19, 2025 | President signs proclamation imposing the $100,000 fee |
| September 21, 2025, 12:01 a.m. ET | Fee takes effect for new H-1B petitions requiring consular processing |
| December 12, 2025 | Coalition of 20 states sues in State of California v. Mullin |
| June 8, 2026 | U.S. District Court (D. Mass.) vacates the policy, calling it a tax |
| July 24, 2026 | First Circuit Court of Appeals declines to stay the vacatur |
| September 18, 2026 | New proclamation extends the fee’s authorization to September 21, 2027 |
| As of this writing | Fee remains not enforceable despite the extension |
Source: U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts; U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit; White House proclamations, 2025-2026.
The $100,000 fee applies, when enforceable, only to new H-1B petitions for beneficiaries located outside the United States who require consular visa processing, not to the roughly 85,000 workers selected through the annual cap lottery generally, and not to extensions or renewals for existing H-1B holders. The court that struck it down ruled the payment functioned as a tax rather than a regulatory fee, reasoning that hiring H-1B workers remains entirely lawful, so a six-figure charge imposed as a precondition could not be justified as a penalty for unlawful conduct. The government argued that declining total H-1B revenue undercut the tax characterization; the court rejected that argument, noting that “every $100,000 payment made pursuant to the Policy does raise revenue” regardless of overall volume trends.
Despite losing at both the district court and the First Circuit, the administration issued a fresh proclamation on September 18, 2026, extending the fee’s authorization through September 21, 2027, a move immigration law firms widely expect to trigger an entirely new round of litigation rather than resolve the underlying legal question. Employers with pending or upcoming consular-processing H-1B cases have been advised to track the litigation closely before committing to the fee, since USCIS has stated it will refund the $100,000 payment if a petition carrying it is ultimately denied, but has not guaranteed refunds tied to the policy’s own legal reversal.
One detail that has caused confusion even among specialists: the September 2026 extension proclamation is frequently described in press coverage as an “executive order,” but it is, like the original September 2025 action, formally a presidential proclamation rather than an executive order, a distinction that matters for how each can be challenged in court. The proclamation arrived alongside a separate executive order titled “Enhancing Program Integrity and Interagency Coordination in the Administration of the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Program,” also signed September 18, 2026, which directs closer coordination between agencies on H-1B enforcement but does not itself impose a fee.
The Proposed $103,265 H-1B Cap-Subject Fee in 2026
HOW THE TWO PROPOSED FEES DIFFER
$100,000 proclamation fee applies only to consular-processing cases
$103,265 DHS-proposed fee applies to ALL cap-subject petitions
| Comparison Point | $100,000 Proclamation Fee | $103,265 Proposed DHS Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Legal basis | Presidential proclamation | Proposed DHS regulation |
| Announced | September 19, 2025 | August 24-25, 2026 |
| Applies to | Beneficiaries abroad needing consular processing | All cap-subject petitions, including master’s-cap filings |
| Current status | Blocked by federal court | Proposed rule, not yet finalized |
| Federal Register document | N/A (proclamation) | Document 2026-17324, published August 25, 2026 |
| Could both apply to one petition? | Yes, per the proposed rule, if both become enforceable |
Source: Federal Register, Document 2026-17324; DHS Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, August 2026.
A second, separate fee proposal adds another layer of complexity: on August 24, 2026, DHS announced a proposed rule creating a $103,265 fee applying to all H-1B cap-subject petitions, including those filed under the 20,000-person advanced-degree exemption, regardless of whether the beneficiary is already in the United States or requires consular processing abroad. Unlike the $100,000 proclamation fee, which targets a narrower slice of petitions, this proposed regulatory fee would apply across the board to every cap-subject filing.
DHS’s own proposed rule text states plainly that the new fee “would be separate from the $100,000 Proclamation payment,” meaning that if both measures become enforceable simultaneously, some employers could face both charges on a single petition, a combined cost north of $203,000 before even counting the standard $3,595 in registration and base petition fees. As of this writing the $103,265 fee remains only a proposal subject to a public comment period, not a final, enforceable rule, and its fate is likely to depend partly on how the ongoing litigation over the $100,000 proclamation fee resolves. For context on how these costs compare with the broader permanent-residency pathway many H-1B holders eventually pursue, the green card statistics report covers the separate fee structure and processing backlogs facing employment-based green card applicants in 2026.
H-1B Lottery Registration Numbers and Selection Rates 2026
H-1B LOTTERY SELECTION RATES BY FISCAL YEAR
FY2021 ███████████████████████ 46% (269,424 registered)
FY2024 █████████████ 25% (780,884 registered, record)
FY2025 ███████████████ 29% (470,342 registered)
| Fiscal Year | Eligible Registrations | Selected | Selection Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2021 | 269,424 | 124,415 | 46% |
| FY2024 | 780,884 | 188,400 | ~25% |
| FY2025 | 470,342 | 135,137 | 29% |
| FY2027 window | March 4-19, 2026 | New wage-weighted selection applies | Pending final count |
Source: USCIS H-1B cap registration data; DHS final rule on wage-weighted selection, published December 29, 2025.
Registration volume swung dramatically across just a few recent fiscal years: from 269,424 entries in the lottery’s first electronic cycle (FY2021), up to a record 780,884 in FY2024 as multiple-employer gaming of the system peaked, then back down to 470,342 in FY2025 after USCIS tightened anti-fraud rules. Selection rates moved inversely, falling from 46% in FY2021 to roughly 25% at FY2024’s peak registration volume, before recovering slightly to 29% in FY2025 as the applicant pool shrank.
The FY2027 cap season, which opened its registration window from March 4 to March 19, 2026, introduced a further structural change: a new wage-weighted selection process, finalized by DHS on December 29, 2025 and effective February 27, 2026, that prioritizes higher-paid job offers within the lottery pool rather than treating every registration with equal odds. Each beneficiary is still counted only once regardless of how many employers register them or how the weighting affects their odds, but the shift is expected to favor senior, higher-salary roles over entry-level positions going forward, a change industry observers say compounds the effect of the $215 registration fee in pushing the program toward higher-cost, higher-skill hiring.
H-1B Visa Fees FAQs
How much does it cost to register for the H-1B lottery in 2026?
$215 per beneficiary, up from $10 before March 2025.
What is the total cost of an H-1B petition for an employer in 2026-27?
$3,595 in standard government fees for most large employers, covering registration, the base I-129 fee, training fee, fraud fee, and Asylum Program Fee.
Is the $100,000 H-1B fee currently in effect?
No. A federal court vacated the policy on June 8, 2026, and the First Circuit declined to reinstate it on July 24, 2026. It remains blocked despite a September 2026 proclamation extending its authorization.
Who would the $100,000 fee apply to if reinstated?
Only new H-1B petitions for beneficiaries located outside the United States who require consular visa processing, not to extensions, renewals, or most cap-lottery winners already in the US.
What is the proposed $103,265 H-1B fee?
A separate DHS rule, proposed in August 2026, that would apply to all cap-subject H-1B petitions, not just consular cases, and could apply on top of the $100,000 proclamation fee if both are finalized.
How much did the H-1B registration fee increase over the last decade?
From $10 to $215, a 2,050% increase, finalized in an April 2024 rule but not applied until the March 2025 registration window.
How many people registered for the H-1B lottery in the most recent full cycle?
470,342 eligible registrations for FY2025, with 135,137 (29%) selected.
What is the annual cap on H-1B visas?
85,000 total: 65,000 under the general cap plus 20,000 reserved for holders of a US master’s degree or higher.
Does the $100,000 fee apply to H-1B renewals?
No. USCIS guidance confirms the fee, when enforceable, is a one-time charge on new petitions only and does not apply to renewals or extensions.
What changed for the FY2027 H-1B lottery?
A new wage-weighted selection process took effect February 27, 2026, prioritizing higher-paid job offers within the registration pool rather than giving every entry equal odds.
How much is H-1B premium processing in 2026?
$2,805, guaranteeing a USCIS decision within 15 business days, up from $2,500 before an earlier fee increase.
Disclaimer: The data research report we present here is based on information found from various sources. We are not liable for any financial loss, errors, or damages of any kind that may result from the use of the information herein. We acknowledge that though we try to report accurately, we cannot verify the absolute facts of everything that has been represented.
