US to charge $4,000 H-1B, $4,500 L-1 fee on extensions: Who will pay

Working in the US on H-1B? Here's when the new $4,000 fee applies

Indian professionals on H-1B and L-1 visas could face another increase in the cost of maintaining their US employment status, although the additional charge will be imposed on their employers rather than directly on the workers.

 

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is expanding the 9-11 Response and Biometric Entry-Exit fee to cover H-1B and L-1 visa extension petitions filed by certain employers. The fee is currently charged only in specific initial and change-of-employer cases.

 

The new rule, scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on August 10, will take effect 30 days after publication. The additional fee is $4,000 for an H-1B petition and $4,500 for an L-1 petition.

 

For Indian workers and their employers, the change comes amid a broader tightening of US employment-based immigration rules and higher costs for companies sponsoring foreign workers.

 

Who has to pay the new fee?

 

The additional fee applies to employers that:

 

• Have at least 50 employees in the US, and
• Have more than 50% of their US workforce on H-1B or L-1 visas.

 

This is often referred to as the 50-50 rule.

 

For these employers, the fee will now apply not only to initial H-1B and L-1 petitions and change-of-employer petitions, but also to extension-of-stay petitions for existing workers.

 

An amended petition that does not request an extension of stay will remain exempt from this particular fee, according to immigration law firm Fragomen.  As per law firm Chugh LLP  the final rule does not increase the existing fee but expands it to same-employer extensions. It confirmed that qualifying employers must pay $4,000 for H-1B and $4,500 for L-1 petitions.

 

In simple terms: an example

 

Consider an Indian software engineer, Deepak, who works for a US technology company.

 

The company has 2,000 employees in the US, of whom 1,200 are on H-1B or L-1 visas.

 

That means:

 

2,000 total employees → 1,200 H-1B/L-1 workers → 60%

 

Because the company has more than 50 employees and more than half of its workforce is on H-1B/L-1 visas, it meets the 50-50 test.

 

If Deepak's H-1B is about to expire and the company files an extension for him, the employer will have to pay the additional $4,000 9-11 Response fee.

 

Deepak does not automatically have to pay that $4,000 himself. The fee is imposed on the petitioning employer.

 

Now consider another Indian professional, Prerna, who works for a company with 100 US employees, of whom only 20 are on H-1B or L-1 visas.

 

The company has a much lower proportion of foreign workers:

 

100 total employees → 20 H-1B/L-1 workers → 20%

 

Because it does not cross the 50% threshold, the additional 9-11 Response fee would not apply to Prerna's H-1B extension.

 

For an L-1 employee working for a company that does meet the threshold, the corresponding additional fee would be $4,500.

 

What has changed?

 

The 9-11 Response fee is not new.

 

Congress created the fee in December 2015 as a successor to an earlier supplemental fee. The money was intended to support biometric entry-exit programmes that had been mandated for national security purposes.

 

The fee currently applies in certain circumstances to employers that meet the 50-50 test.

 

Under the new interpretation, DHS is expanding the circumstances in which the fee is payable.

 

Previously, a qualifying employer generally paid the fee when filing for an initial grant of H-1B or L-1 status or when changing the employer of an H-1B or L-1 worker.

 

The new rule adds all H-1B and L-1 extension-of-stay petitions filed by covered employers.

 

Fragomen said the regulation "will also apply the fee to all H-1B and L-1 extension of stay petitions filed by subject employers." 

"The new regulation interprets the fee to apply to an expanded set of circumstances, irrespective of whether the fraud fee is required in the filing. The rule continues to require the 9-11 fee for petitions seeking initial grant of H-1B or L-1 status and for change-of-employer petitions in those two visa categories and will also apply the fee to all H-1B and L-1 extension of stay petitions filed by subject employers. Amended petitions without an extension request will be exempt from the fee," explained Fragomen. 

Why is DHS expanding the fee?

 

DHS says the underlying law contains ambiguous language that allows the agency to interpret the fee as applying to a broader set of petitions.

 

The fee was originally created to help fund biometric entry and exit systems designed to strengthen US national security.

 

The fee is currently scheduled to expire on September 30, 2027, unless Congress extends it.

 

What does this mean for Indian H-1B workers?

 

The immediate financial burden falls on the employer, not directly on the foreign worker.

 

However, the change could still have an indirect impact on Indian professionals because employers may consider immigration costs when making hiring, retention and sponsorship decisions.

 

This is particularly relevant to large technology and consulting companies that employ significant numbers of H-1B workers.

 

The additional $4,000 or $4,500 is also only one component of the overall cost of sponsoring an H-1B or L-1 employee. Depending on the petition, employers may also have to pay other government filing and immigration-related fees.

 

For companies with large numbers of foreign workers, the cost can therefore accumulate quickly.

 

How much could it add up to?

 

Consider a company that qualifies under the 50-50 test and has 100 H-1B employees whose visas need to be extended.

 

If the company files extensions for all 100 employees, the new fee alone would amount to:

 

100 × $4,000 = $400,000

 

That is roughly ₹3.3 crore, assuming an exchange rate of about ₹83 per US dollar.

 

For 100 L-1 extensions, the additional cost would be:

 

100 × $4,500 = $450,000

 

or roughly ₹3.7 crore.

 

This is why the rule could be more significant for large employers with a high concentration of H-1B and L-1 workers than for smaller companies.

 

How is this different from the proposed $100,000 H-1B fee?

 

The two should not be confused.

 

The $4,000 H-1B and $4,500 L-1 fees discussed in the new DHS rule are part of an existing statutory 9-11 Response fee, which is now being expanded to cover extensions for qualifying employers.

 

The separate $100,000 H-1B fee announced by the Trump administration is a different measure and has been the subject of legal challenges.

 

That distinction is important for Indian H-1B workers because the new rule does not mean that every H-1B extension suddenly attracts a $4,000 fee — and it is not the same as the separate $100,000 measure.

 

What should H-1B and L-1 workers do?

 

Foreign workers do not need to make a separate payment or file an application because of this rule.

 

However, anyone whose H-1B or L-1 status is approaching expiry should ask their employer's immigration team or lawyer whether the company meets the 50-50 test and whether the new fee will apply to their extension petition.

 

The key questions are:

 

Does the employer have at least 50 US employees?

 

Are more than 50% of those employees on H-1B or L-1 visas?

 

If the answer to both is yes, the employer should expect the additional fee when filing a covered extension after the rule takes effect.