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U.S. further relaxes $100,000 H-1B visa fee norms

admin — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 09:25:00 +0000

Issued by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Monday (October 20, 2025), the fresh guidelines clarified the exemptions to President Donald Trump’s September 19 proclamation.
| Photo Credit: AP

In a further relaxation of its rules relating to the new $100,000 fee on H-1B visas, the U.S. government has said that the fee will not apply to applications for a change of status or an extension of stay in the U.S.

U.S. President Donald Trump had on September 19 signed a proclamation imposing a $100,000 fee on H-1B visas. Hours later, his government clarified that the new fee would only apply to new applications, and would be one-time.

Guidelines issued by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services department on Monday reiterated this, saying that the proclamation “does not apply to any previously issued and currently valid H-1B visas, or any petitions submitted prior to 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on September 21, 2025”.

“The Proclamation also does not apply to a petition filed at or after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on September 21, 2025, that is requesting an amendment, change of status, or extension of stay for an alien inside the United States where the alien is granted such amendment, change, or extension,” the guidelines added.

Notably, they also said that the proclamation does not prevent any holder of a current H-1B visa from travelling to and from the U.S.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce had last week filed a lawsuit challenging the $100,000 fee, saying it overrides existing provisions in current laws that apply to the H-1B programme.

In particular, the chamber said that the fee overrides provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act that govern the H-1B programme.

The H-1B visa, and any related fees, are of particular interest to Indians since they are the largest beneficiaries of this visa programme.

While the U.S. government does not share data on the number of H-1B visa holders currently in the U.S., other sources, such as FWD.us, an immigration and criminal justice reform advocacy body co-founded by Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg, say that there were 7.3 lakh H-1B visa-holders in the U.S. as of January of this year. Of these, about 70% were Indian.

Further, as per data with the USCIS, Tata Consultancy Services had 5,505 H-1B visas approved in 2025 as of end-June, the second-highest globally that year, after Amazon (10,044).

Other Indian companies that have significantly benefited from the H-1B programme include Infosys (2,004), Wipro (1,523) and Tech Mahindra Americas (951).

Published – October 21, 2025 02:55 pm IST

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US H-1B Visa Quota Full For 2025. What Applicants Should Do Now

admin — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 17:07:01 +0000

It has been announced by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services or USCIS that they have received enough petitions to meet the cap for H-1B visas.

So, can more people apply or will they be rejected?

A congressional cap of 65,000 H-1B visas for regular applicants and an additional 20,000 visas for US advanced degree holders have been mandated by the US government.

The agency has informed that it will send out non-selection notices to registered candidates through their online accounts. The status later will read, “Not Selected: Not selected – not eligible to file an H-1B cap petition based on this registration” once the notifications are complete.

The H-1B cap lottery comes into the picture after the applications exceed the annual cap set by the US government. After that, a lottery system is used to process the petitions.

The deadline for submitting H-1B cap petitions was June 30 2024 but since the date fell on a Sunday, properly registered petitions received on July 1, 2024 would also be considered on time.

However, USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that have been exempted from the cap.

“We will continue to accept and process petitions filed to extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United States; change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers; allow current H-1B workers to change employers; and allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in additional H-1B positions,” the USCIS said.

The visa lottery is a complex process and should be followed through with detail. It is advisable to keep track of the notifications sent by USCIS and not miss important deadlines or information.

Usually the majority of H-1B visa holders are Indians (72.3% of the total 386,000 H-1B visas issued), however USCIS data shows a decline in sponsorships across major firms such as Google, Amazon, Infosys and IBM.

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H-1B initial registration period to close on March 22

admin — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 05:23:36 +0000

USCIS will begin accepting online filing of the forms for H-1B cap petitions on April 1. File
| Photo Credit: AP

The initial registration period for the H-1B visas, the most sought-after by Indian IT professionals, for fiscal 2025 closes on March 22, a federal agency has said.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows U.S. companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.

Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

The initial registration period for the most sought-after H-1B visas for foreign guest workers for fiscal 2025 closes at 12 noon Eastern Time (9:30 p.m. IST) on March 22, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said on March 18.

During this period, prospective petitioners and legal representatives must use an online account of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process and pay the associated registration fee for each beneficiary.

Online account users will also be able to collaborate on registrations and petitions with enhanced organisational account features in their online accounts, it said.

Form I-129, a petition for a non-immigrant worker, for H-1B petitions and Form I-907, a request for premium processing service, are now accessible in the USCIS online accounts, a media release said.

The USCIS will begin accepting online filing of the forms for H-1B cap petitions on April 1. “We will announce when online filing of non-cap H-1B petitions is available,” the USCIS said.

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