$100,000 per H-1B petition, and the lottery follows the salary

In September 2025 the President ordered by proclamation that petitions for new H-1B workers require a payment of $100,000 per petition, due before filing.

A hundred thousand dollars. Paid not by the worker but by the employer, and not as an investment but as a fee.

The fee was challenged in court, among others by the US Chamber of Commerce. On December 23, 2025, a federal court in Washington upheld it, finding it covered by the President's broad authority. The case is going to appeal, and further lawsuits are pending in other districts. But for now, the fee stands.

On December 29, 2025, the final rule on the selection process was published. It takes effect on February 27, 2026, in time for the next registration round.

The core is quickly told and huge in its consequences. Until now, every registration got one ticket. From now on, the number of tickets depends on the wage level assigned to the position. Register a top-level position and you get four tickets. Register the lowest level and you get correspondingly fewer.

The agency itself writes that the process will generally shift selection in favor of higher-skilled, higher-paid workers, without taking away employers' ability to hire at every wage level.

To make the scale tangible, the rule cites its own figures: in computer and mathematical occupations, the median salary of H-1B workers in fiscal year 2024 was around $89,000 at level one and around $163,000 at level four.

Since this term now decides how many tickets you get, it pays to look at where it comes from. The US Department of Labor publishes four wage levels for every occupation and every region. They are based on a survey and reflect what is customary in that occupation in that place.

Level one is entry level, level four is full mastery of the field. An employer assigns a position based on its actual requirements and must pay at least the matching wage.

Until now, that classification was a question of payroll cost. From now on it is also a question of selection odds, and that creates an obvious incentive: to rate positions higher than they deserve.

If you do that, know that a classification that doesn't match the job described can be challenged. The wage must actually be paid, and the job description must support the requirements. American audits in this area are uncomfortably thorough.

Run the numbers from an employer's point of view. An entry-level position paying $89,000 a year, plus a $100,000 fee, plus the usual filing and attorney costs. That employee's first year costs more than twice their salary. And even then, selection isn't guaranteed; it only becomes more likely if you rate the position high.

The consequence is obvious. For entry-level positions, this route is dead. For young professionals from abroad, for fresh PhDs, for anyone who wanted to enter the American job market through a modestly paid first job, a door is closing here.

For highly paid specialists it stays open and even becomes more predictable, because less competition is fighting over the same quota. The caps themselves are unchanged: 65,000 regular slots and 20,000 additional ones for graduates of US master's programs.

Because many mid-sized European companies want to staff their American subsidiary with a mix: a few experienced people from headquarters, plus younger talent they can develop.

That exact model becomes unaffordable through the H-1B. If you still want to bring people from Europe into your American company, look at the routes that don't run through a lottery.

The L-1 for intracompany transfers. If you have worked for the European company for at least a year in a managerial role or with specialized knowledge, you can be transferred to the American subsidiary. No lottery, no annual cap, no chance involved. Instead, there are requirements for the relationship between the companies and for the role. The guide is in L-1 visa.

The E-2 for investors from treaty countries. Most European countries, including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands, are treaty countries. If you invest substantially in an American business and run it, you can come this way, and in some cases bring key employees of the same nationality. Start with E-2 investor visa, and see the comparison in L-1 vs. E-2.

The O-1 for extraordinary ability. Not a mass route, but the fastest one for people with proven top achievement in science, business, the arts or sports. Details in O-1 visa.

And for executives, the EB-1. If you meet the requirements, check whether you can go straight to permanent residence instead of through a temporary stage. See EB-1A green card.

Two things are running in parallel and pull in opposite directions. The fee rests on a proclamation whose legality is disputed and under review in several cases. The weighted selection rests on a regular regulation with a public comment process, which makes it far more firmly anchored.

For planning, that means: the weighted lottery is coming and here to stay. The fee may fall, and if it does, there will be an awkward question about refunds for everyone who paid in the meantime.

If you want to hire someone in this situation, don't build on hope. Build on a route that doesn't depend on these cases.

Classify positions honestly and write the job description to match. Not the other way around.

Ask whether it has to be an H-1B at all. For many roles in European-run companies, it doesn't. A transferee from the parent company, an investor, a specialist with an extraordinary profile: all three come without a lottery.

And take the American workforce seriously. The most common mistake European mid-sized companies make is assuming they have to bring their own people because there are none here. The American job market is deep, mobile and in many regions better than the ones back home in Europe. If you build here, hire here, and limit transfers to the roles where they are indispensable.

The H-1B debate has been fierce in the United States for years, and both sides have arguments you should know if you are building a team here.

One side says the program has pushed down American wages, because companies could bring in foreign workers at entry-level pay who were tied to their employer and so couldn't negotiate. Weighted selection is the direct answer to that.

The other side says America's lead in technology and research rests largely on immigration, and making entry more expensive means losing the next generation to other countries. That isn't wrong either.

What matters for you as a European business owner is that both trends have the same practical result: the American market for highly skilled workers is getting tighter and more expensive. If you want to fill a role locally that is competed for worldwide, budget for American salaries, not European ones.

Registration for the next quota usually takes place in March, and the quota year starts on October 1. So there are a good six months between registration and the actual start date, longer in the worst case.

If you need to fill a position this summer, you can't do it through this program. That's not a new problem, but the added hurdles make it more urgent. With US work visas, a one-year planning horizon is the minimum, not the exception.

If you need to move faster, you inevitably end up with the routes without a quota. The L-1 has no annual cap. Neither does the E-2. Both come with requirements you can build up if you start early enough. And that's exactly the point: these routes reward preparation, while the lottery only ever rewarded luck.

Registration for the coming quota takes place in the spring, under the new rules. If you plan to take part, review how your positions are classified now, because that decides how many tickets you get.

And if you are building a presence in America, think about staffing from the other end. Not: how do I bring my people over? But: which roles have to come from Europe, and which can I fill locally? In the United States, the answer to the second question is almost always bigger than European business owners think.

If you want to set up the staffing plan for your American company, talk to Mount Bonnell Advisors in Austin, Texas. What employing people locally means in practice is covered in Payroll and Transferring employees.

For decades the H-1B was the most democratic way into the American job market, because it asked only one question: does an employer want you? Everything else was decided by a random draw, and that draw cared nothing about where you came from or what you owned.

What is taking shape now is something different. A process in which money improves your odds, and a fee that shuts out small employers. You can think that is right or wrong, and in America both views are argued with good reason. What you should not do is plan as if the old route were still there.

Consultation & implementation

If you'd like to find out what this means for your own situation, the best step is to book a consultation.