H-1B restriction extended to 2027, the $100,000 blocked

There are two documents, both from the same day.

Proclamation 11069, titled "Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers", extends the September 2025 proclamation by twelve months. Entry of H-1B workers remains restricted unless a payment of $100,000 has been made on their behalf. The new proclamation took effect on September 21, 2026 and, unless extended again, expires on September 21, 2027.

The restriction still applies to people outside the United States who need to enter to start their job. The Secretary of Homeland Security can grant exceptions for individuals, companies or entire industries if he considers them in the national interest.

Executive Order 14431, titled "Enhancing Program Integrity and Interagency Coordination in the Administration of the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Program", requires the Departments of Labor, Homeland Security and State to consider, for every H-1B petition, whether the employer carried out or plans layoffs in the past year affecting comparable American workers. The Department of Labor is to begin reviewing past filings for violations within 30 days.

The text is unusually candid. Since taking effect in September 2025, it says, the $100,000 payment has been made for more than 700 petitions. The largest IT staffing firms cut their registrations from 24,946 to 2,055, a drop of 92 percent. The share of registrants with an American master's degree rose from 45.1 percent in 2026 to 66.1 percent in 2027.

The government reads these numbers as a success. You can read them differently: the program has been all but closed to anyone not aiming for a top position with a high salary. For Mia, this is not a statistic.

This is where it gets contradictory, and that is exactly what you need to understand. On June 8, 2026, a federal court in Massachusetts, in State of California v. Mullin, set aside the administrative guidance the agency had used to implement the payment. We covered it in A judge calls the $100,000 a tax.

The government asked the First Circuit Court of Appeals to stay that ruling pending appeal. On July 24, 2026, the appeals court denied the request. USCIS states on its website that it considers the ruling wrong but will comply while it weighs its next steps. It adds that if the order is later lifted, it still plans to collect the payment.

In short: the proclamation is extended, its enforcement is blocked by a court ruling, and the government is waiting for that to change. Mia has a right on paper, and an agency that has announced it will take it away again as soon as it can.

Then there is the route we described at the end of August in What a court struck down, the agency is now rewriting. On August 25, the Department of Homeland Security published a proposed rule setting a fee of $103,265 for every cap-subject H-1B petition, this time through the formal rulemaking process, which is harder to challenge in court than a proclamation.

The comment period on the proposal closed on September 24. The agency is now reviewing the submissions. A final rule may follow; there is no date for it.

So three tracks are running side by side: an extended proclamation, a court ruling blocking its enforcement, and a regulation in the making that aims for the same goal by another route. Anyone planning an H-1B registration next spring has to reckon with all three.

Mia's employer is offering her an annual salary of $120,000. On top of the usual costs of an H-1B case (attorney fees, government fees), the proclamation would add $100,000 as soon as the agency can collect it again. Under the proposed rule it would be $103,265.

That is more than 80 percent of her first-year salary as an extra charge, paid by the employer. For a twenty-person start-up, that is no longer a hiring decision but a funding question.

And even without the payment, Mia has to get through the lottery. Since the spring, it has been weighted by wage level. With an American master's and an offer in the upper wage levels, her odds are good. Nothing is certain.

For many Europeans there are routes to America that this dispute does not touch at all. They rest on statutes and treaties, not proclamations.

The E-2 investor visa. Many European countries, including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands, have treaties of commerce and navigation with the United States that open the E-2 to their citizens. No lottery, no quota, no special payment. The requirement is a substantial investment in an active business that you run yourself. For Mia, that would mean no employer, but her own company.

The L-1 visa. If you have worked for at least one of the last three years for a company outside the US in a managerial role or with specialized knowledge, you can be transferred to its American subsidiary, parent or sister company. Mia's friend in Leipzig, who works at a software house that is just setting up a subsidiary in Texas, has exactly this route ahead of her.

The O-1 visa for people with extraordinary ability, shown through awards, publications, press coverage or outstanding salaries. Mia's thesis won an award at a conference. That is a start, not yet a case.

You might say that as long as the court blocks the payment, the extension is meaningless. That would be a mistake.

First, the legal situation can change quickly. An appeals ruling in the government's favor, a Supreme Court decision, a final fee rule, and the payment would be due again. Anyone about to enter at that moment would face a closed door.

Second, the extension shows where things are heading. The proclamation requires the departments to recommend, within 30 days after the next lottery, whether the restriction should be extended again. This is no longer a stopgap; it is policy.

And third, the new Executive Order applies regardless of the payment. An employer that cut jobs in the past year will have to explain why it now needs a foreign worker. For corporations going through restructuring, that is a new hurdle, whatever any court decides.

For American companies that want to hire skilled workers from Europe, the picture after September 18 is murkier than ever. There are three questions they should ask themselves this fall.

Is the person already in the US? The proclamation restricts entry and expressly limits the restriction on petition decisions to workers currently outside the United States. Someone already in the country in another status, for example after their studies, is in a different position from someone who has to enter from abroad. How the agencies apply this in individual cases depends on their further guidance.

Have there been layoffs in the last twelve months? Under the new Executive Order, this will be considered for every petition. A company that cut jobs in the spring should document carefully, before filing a new petition, why the new position is not comparable to the ones eliminated.

And is there an alternative that does not depend on the lottery? For companies with a parent or subsidiary in Europe, the L-1 is often the more direct route. It requires the person to have worked for the European company for a year beforehand. Planning today lays the groundwork for the year after next.

Going by the usual schedule, the next registration round takes place in spring 2027. If you want to take part, start preparing now, and assume the payment could be demanded again by then.

One Sunday evening she called her future boss in Austin, seven hours apart, him with coffee, her with a glass of wine. He still wants her. But he told her frankly that he does not know whether he can come up with $100,000 when it counts.

Mia then asked a question she had never asked before: what if she came in as a partner, with her own capital, through her own company? Then she would no longer be an applicant in a lottery, but an investor with a treaty right.

It is not a route for everyone. It takes capital, a business plan and a genuine entrepreneurial role. But you can plan for it, and it does not hang on any proclamation.

Which route is right for you, your family or your team is something we set out in writing in the Visa Roadmap: which category fits, what evidence you need, in what order the steps run and which deadlines apply. Prepared together with the immigration attorney on the firm's team. Whether a petition is approved is always up to the authorities, but once you know your route, you are no longer stuck in a lottery. You will find an overview of every visa category in our US Visa and Green Card section, and all our services under Services & Fees.

We told the start of this story, including December's court ruling that initially upheld the fee, in $100,000 for a job in America. A year on, the story is not over. But for people like Mia, there is now a different chapter, one they can write themselves.

Consultation & implementation

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