On Friday September 19, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order (“EO”) mandating that as of Monday, September 22, 2025, foreign nationals seeking to enter the Unites States as H-1B temporary workers must pay a $100,000 fee. The next day, US Citizenship & Immigration Services and Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) issued a memorandum limiting the fee to foreign nationals seeking entry using H-1B petitions filed on or after September 21 2025.
Here's what we know:
This is an entry ban. To insulate this order against litigation and potential judicial review, the Trump administration cited Immigration and Nationality Act sec. 212(f) and the executive branch’s power to regulate entry to the United States in the EO. The EO and subsequent agency memoranda requires foreign nationals seeking to enter the US as an H-1B temporary worker using a petition filed after September 22, 2025 to pay a $100,000 fee.
Foreign nationals that are the beneficiary of an H-1B visa petition filed before September 21, 2025 are exempt from the fee. This means that anyone currently employed as an H-1B worker is exempt from the fee. The fee will be applied prospectively. Exempt H-1B employees seeking reentry to the US should present both their passports and I-797 Approval Notice to CBP. This will establish the filing date of the petition and exemption from the fee.
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