Does the $100,000 H-1B visa fee ultimately take effect?
Will the $100,000 H-1B visa fee imposed by presidential proclamation ultimately survive legal challenges and be enforced against new H-1B petitions?
Continued to drift down as the Sept 20 sunset closes to 9 days out with still no renewal signal from the White House or DHS — the dominant fact in the case remains the calendar, not any single filing
Skeptics of the proclamation fee surviving note the First Circuit explicitly found the government unlikely to succeed on the merits, the tax-vs-entry-restriction theory against it echoes the reasoning that sank the administration's IEEPA tariffs 6-3 at the Supreme Court in February 2026, and the proclamation's own Sept 20 sunset is now 9 days out with no public renewal signal. The counter-case: a separate D.C. district court already upheld the identical fee under Section 212(f) entry-restriction authority, a genuinely different theory a higher court could still credit, and the DHS rulemaking shows the administration still wants a $100K-plus H-1B fee in some form even if the current legal vehicle lapses — the underlying policy goal hasn't been abandoned even as this specific proclamation's odds fade.
No fixed date · Federal court litigation — First Circuit appeal pending, a Supreme Court review is plausible given the circuit split
The Sept 20 expiry of the underlying proclamation is now just 9 days away, and there is still no public signal — from the White House, DHS, or any joint agency recommendation filing — that a renewal is coming. State of California v. Mullin remains quiet, with briefing still tracking toward an Oct 16 conclusion, three-plus weeks after the proclamation itself would lapse on its own terms. The only visible administration activity this week is on the separate DHS rulemaking track: the $103,265 cap-subject fee remains a proposal only, not in effect, with the Sept 24 comment period still open and DHS free to revise, finalize, delay, or withdraw it afterward. Nothing in today's research changes the core fact: the litigated proclamation is now closer to expiring on its own terms (Sept 20) than to any ruling that would revive it (Oct 16 briefing conclusion at the earliest).
The fee either survives judicial review and is enforced, or the courts' vacatur stands and it is permanently blocked — a discrete legal outcome with no fixed date since the appellate timeline is at the courts' discretion.
Researched Sep 11, 2026 · tracked since Aug 24, 2026 · 15 readings
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The fee is reinstatedthis is “yes”
The circuit split ultimately breaks the government's way — whether at the First Circuit on the merits or on Supreme Court review of the D.C. precedent — and the $100,000 charge is enforced against new H-1B petitions going forward.
Worth knowing: The most recent appellate signal (the First Circuit's stay denial) went against the government, so this is currently the underdog case — a bet that a higher court, not the current appellate posture, ultimately prevails.
The fee stays blocked
The Massachusetts vacatur holds up on appeal, the tax/separation-of-powers theory that already sank the administration's IEEPA tariffs at the Supreme Court carries the day again, and the fee never takes effect.
Worth knowing: A district-court vacatur and a favorable stay denial are not a final ruling — the D.C. precedent upholding the fee is real, and if the Supreme Court takes the case on the entry-restriction theory rather than the tax theory, the calculus changes quickly.
13 sources, leaning both ways
- noCNBC — Judge blocks Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa feeJune 8, 2026: primary reporting on the D. Mass. ruling vacating the fee as unlawful.
- yesFragomen — United States: District Court Judge Issues Opinion Upholding $100,000 H-1B FeeCovers the Dec 24, 2025 D.C. district court ruling upholding the fee under Section 212(f) — the conflicting precedent that creates the circuit split.
- noFragomen — United States: Federal Appeals Court Declines to Stay Lower Court Order Vacating $100,000 H-1B FeeJuly 24, 2026: the First Circuit's denial of a stay, and its finding the government was unlikely to succeed on the merits.
- mixedNews Anyway — First Circuit Blocks H-1B Visa Fee Ruling, Setting Up Supreme Court TestAug 12, 2026: frames the conflicting D. Mass. and D.C. rulings as a circuit split likely bound for Supreme Court review.
- mixedForbes — Businesses Try New Argument In Immigration Appeal On $100,000 H-1B FeeDetails the evolving legal arguments on appeal, including the tax-versus-entry-restriction framing central to the circuit split.
- mixedVisaVerge — $103,265 H-1B Fee Proposal Explained: 2026 UpdateAug 24-25: DHS's new notice-of-proposed-rulemaking (RIN 1615-AD20) for a standalone $103,265 cap-subject H-1B fee under 8 CFR 106.2(a)(3)(xii) — a separate regulatory vehicle from the proclamation fee this question tracks, with comments due roughly Sept 24.
- noNational Law Review — DHS Proposes $103,265 Fee for All H-1B Cap-Subject PetitionsAug 26 legal analysis: calls the new rule a second, freestanding charge pursued via ordinary notice-and-comment rulemaking after the proclamation-based fee lost in court, and flags that litigation is expected against this rule too.
- mixedNPZ Law Group — DHS Proposes New $103,265 H-1B Fee — Separate From (and On Top Of) the $100,000 Proclamation PaymentSept 2026 analysis: frames the DHS rule as additive to, not a replacement for, the proclamation fee — the administration's public position is that both charges could eventually apply, which cuts against reading the rulemaking as an abandonment of the proclamation route.
- yesFederal Register — Fee for Certain H-1B Petitions (RIN 1615-AD20)Primary source: the proposed rule's own text says the $103,265 fee would be charged 'in addition to all other applicable fees or payments' — confirming it is additive, not a replacement for the proclamation fee, and complicating the 'abandonment' read of DHS's strategy.
- noKlasko Immigration Law Partners — August 2026: $100,000 H-1B Fee Blocked AgainConfirms the First Circuit's Jul 24 stay denial holds, the vacatur stands pending appeal, and flags the Sept 20 proclamation-expiry date as a live wildcard on top of the litigation.
- noAILA — CA1 Denies Government's Request for Stay on Order Finding $100,000 H-1B Fee UnlawfulCase tracker confirms briefing on the merits in State of California v. Mullin (No. 26-1699) is expected to conclude Oct 16, 2026 — after both the Sept 20 proclamation expiry and the Sept 24 DHS comment deadline.
- mixedUSCIS — H-1B FAQConfirms the separate 9-11 Response and Biometric Entry-Exit Fee final rule for H-1B/L-1 petitions takes effect Sept 9 — a distinct, procedurally separate fee track from the proclamation-based charge this question tracks.
- mixedEllis — The New $103,265 H-1B Visa Fee, Explained (2026)Confirms the DHS $103,265 proposal is not yet in effect and nothing is owed under it as of this update — the comment period runs through Sept 24, after which DHS can revise, finalize, delay, or withdraw it, underscoring that neither fee track is currently enforceable.