H-1B costs: 215 dollars for the lottery, thousands for the petition

With the H-1B, the American employer pays, and it pays in stages: first for the lottery registration, then for the petition, then a series of additional fees whose amount depends on the size of the company. On top of that comes the $100,000 payment from the proclamation, whose implementation a federal court has set aside.

If you want to bring a skilled worker to the USA on an H-1B, you need an American employer, and that employer pays the government fees. When you send staff over from Europe, the employer is almost always the US subsidiary or US branch. The bill has several layers: the fees of USCIS (the immigration agency), the consulate fee, the costs for the family and a salary with a legal minimum. Our article on the H-1B visa explains what the H-1B is; why it is rarely the best route for sending staff to the US is covered in H-1B visa: lottery, requirements and sending staff.

1Who gets the bill

The H-1B is a visa the employer applies for. Under the regulations, the petitioner on Form I-129 is a US employer: a company with a genuine job offer in the USA, a legal presence in the country and a tax number from the IRS. The professional does not file anything with USCIS. They only apply for the visa at the consulate later.

That leads to an important rule for your budget: under US Department of Labor rules, the employer may not pass the ACWIA fee, which applies to most H-1B petitions, on to the employee. It may not recover it directly or indirectly, not even through a wage deduction. If your assignment contract requires the employee to repay visa costs, expressly exclude this fee.

For the European parent company, this means it can carry the cost in practice, for example by funding the US subsidiary, but on paper the US company pays. If there is none yet, it has to be formed first. For how that works with a US corporation and how payroll is later run in the USA, see our pages on company formation and payroll.

2USCIS fees, item by item

The USCIS fee schedule is called Form G-1055. Under the edition dated October 16, 2026, an H-1B petition is made up of these items:

• Registration: $215 per person. It applies only to cap-subject positions, and it is your ticket into the lottery. If you are not selected, you do not get the money back and you may not file a petition.
• Form I-129: $780 on paper, $730 online. Small employers and nonprofits pay $460.
• Asylum Program Fee: $600, $300 for small employers, nothing for nonprofits. It applies to every I-129.
• Fraud Prevention and Detection Fee: $500 for a person's first H-1B approval and when changing to a different employer. It cannot be waived.
• ACWIA fee: $1,500, or half that, $750, for employers with no more than 25 full-time equivalents in the USA. Universities, their affiliated nonprofits, nonprofit and government research organizations, and schools are exempt.
• 9-11 Response and Biometric Entry-Exit Fee: $4,000, but only for employers with at least 50 employees in the USA, more than half of whom hold H-1B or L status. The fee applies to petitions filed by September 30, 2027.
• Premium Processing: $2,965, optional. USCIS then decides on the I-129 within 15 business days.

The fee rule defines a small employer: a company with no more than 25 full-time equivalents in the USA, including affiliates and subsidiaries. Only employees in the USA count. A young US subsidiary of a mid-sized European company with a handful of staff on the ground is therefore usually a small employer, even if the group employs a thousand people in Europe.

3Three bills for a first petition

The first table lists each fee on its own; the second adds them up. Each example assumes an initial cap-subject petition, filed online, without premium processing. Three typical employers:

• The small US subsidiary with ten employees pays $2,225: the reduced I-129, half the Asylum Program Fee and half the ACWIA fee.
• The larger US subsidiary with forty employees pays $3,545, because none of the reductions apply.
• The employer with a mostly foreign workforce, sixty employees, thirty-five of them on H-1B or L-1, pays $7,545, because the 9-11 fee also applies.

With Premium Processing, the three examples come to $5,190, $6,510 and $10,510. Not included: attorney fees, the consular fee, family members and the $100,000 under the proclamation. If you pay for the registration and aren't selected, you've spent $215 and start from scratch the following year.

4The 100,000 dollars: what the proclamation requires and what the court decided

On September 19, 2025, the President issued Proclamation 10973, restricting the entry of H-1B workers whose petition is not accompanied by a payment of $100,000. Proclamation 11069 of September 18, 2026 extended this restriction by twelve months. It has applied since September 21, 2026 and, unless extended again, expires on September 21, 2027.

USCIS describes who has to pay as follows: petitions for people who are outside the USA and do not hold a valid H-1B visa, plus petitions requesting consular or port-of-entry notification. Petitions for people in the USA whose change of status, extension or amendment USCIS approves are not affected, nor are H-1B visas that have already been issued and are still valid. So the typical assignment case, a professional in Europe who will enter on a new visa, is exactly the case the proclamation targets. The Secretary of Homeland Security can grant exceptions in the national interest; USCIS says these will be extraordinarily rare.

Then the court. On June 8, 2026, the US District Court for Massachusetts, in State of California v. Mullin, set aside the agency guidance used to implement the payment. The First Circuit Court of Appeals denied the government's motion to stay that ruling pending appeal on July 24, 2026. USCIS says it considers the ruling wrong but will comply with it, and plans to collect the payment again if the order is later overturned.

So the legal position has three parts. The proclamation is in force. Its implementation by USCIS has been set aside by a court ruling, which the agency is following. And fee schedule G-1055, in its version of 16 October 2026, still lists the $100,000 as an item, payable through pay.gov before filing. If you are planning an H-1B petition for someone abroad, treat the payment as a risk in your budget, not as settled. How the dispute started and how it unfolded is told in our articles on the Boston ruling and on the extended proclamation.

5The proposed 103,265 dollar rule

At the same time, the government is taking a second route. On August 25, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security published a proposed rule in the Federal Register setting a new fee of $103,265. It would be due at filing for every cap-subject H-1B petition, including petitions for graduates of US master's programs, on top of all other fees and payments. It would not apply to cap-exempt petitions, such as those from universities.

The comment period closed on 24 September 2026. As of October 2026, no final rule has appeared in the Federal Register, so the proposal is not law. It does show where the cost of a cap-subject H-1B could go, and it makes no distinction based on where the worker is. You can read our report on the proposal in The H-1B fee comes in through the back door.

6Consulate, family and your spouse's work permit

Once the petition is approved, the employee applies for the visa at a US consulate. Under the State Department's fee schedule, an H category visa application costs $205 per person. Depending on nationality, a reciprocity issuance fee may be added; you will find it in the State Department's Reciprocity Schedule for each country.

Spouses and unmarried children under 21 come in H-4 status. Every family member who needs a visa pays the same $205 application fee. If the family already lives in the US and changes or extends status there, Form I-539 costs $470 on paper or $420 online.

One point that often catches families off guard: an H-4 spouse cannot simply start working. A work permit is only available if an I-140 green card petition has already been approved for the employee, or if their stay has been extended beyond six years under AC21. The application on Form I-765 then costs $520 on paper or $470 online. The L-1 is different: L-2 spouses are authorized to work based on their status alone.

7Extensions, changing employers and Premium Processing

An H-1B is usually approved for up to three years and can be extended for up to three more. Every extension is a new I-129 with the base fee and the Asylum Program Fee. There is no registration: once someone has been counted against the cap, they do not go back into the lottery for an extension with the same employer.

The regulation is precise about the additional fees:

• ACWIA fee: due on the first approval, the first extension and a change of employer. From the second extension with the same employer, it no longer applies.
• Fraud Prevention and Detection Fee: only on the first approval and on a change to a different employer, not on an extension.
• 9-11 Fee: for affected employers on every petition that includes an extension; only amendments without an extension are exempt.

Premium Processing is always optional and costs $2,965. It speeds up the decision on the petition, not the lottery and not the consulate appointment. For a cap-subject petition, work cannot start before October 1 of the fiscal year anyway, so the fast decision mainly lets you plan with certainty.

8The costs you won't find on any fee schedule

The biggest cost of an H-1B is not a fee but the salary. In the Labor Condition Application filed with the Department of Labor, the employer commits to paying at least what it pays similarly qualified employees or, if higher, the prevailing wage for the position in the area. The wage level also counts in the lottery: since fiscal year 2027, positions at the highest of the four wage levels go into the pool four times, positions at the lowest level once. With the H-1B, a higher salary doesn't just cost more; it also improves your odds in the lottery.

There are also obligations if the assignment ends early. If the employer terminates the employment before the end of the approved stay, it must pay the reasonable cost of return transportation. This does not apply if the employee resigns. A proposed Department of Labor rule dated March 27, 2026 would also bring the wage levels closer to the pay of comparable American workers; it has not been adopted either.

Finally, there are attorney fees for the registration, the Labor Condition Application and the petition. What we charge for a petition is listed on our service pages; whether this route makes sense for your employee at all is something a consultation will answer.

9What the same assignment costs with an L-1

For an employee who has worked continuously for the company in Europe for at least a year, there is a second calculation: the L-1 for intracompany transfers. The base fee for the I-129 is higher there, $1,335 online or $1,385 on paper, $695 for small employers. In return, there is no registration, no lottery, no ACWIA fee and no payment under the proclamation. The Asylum Program Fee and the Fraud Prevention and Detection Fee are the same amount. The 9-11 Fee for the L-1 is $4,500 and applies to the same group of employers.

For the small US subsidiary in the example above, that means $1,495 in USCIS fees for the L-1 instead of $2,225 for the H-1B, with no lottery and a petition you can file at any time of year. Companies with an approved Blanket L petition even apply for the L-1 directly at the consulate and pay the $500 Fraud Prevention and Detection Fee there. All L-1 fees in detail are on our page L-1 costs and fees, and the requirements on the L-1 visa page. Which visas work for sending staff to the US at all is compared in Which visa for sending staff to the US?, and how the employee's salary is taxed in both countries is explained in Sending staff to the USA: tax and salary. We work out which route fits you in a visa consultation, and if you like, we file the petition with the immigration attorney on the firm's team.

In short

• For an H-1B, the US employer pays $215 for registration, then the fees for the I-129 petition and several additional fees.
• A first petition costs between $2,225 (small US subsidiary) and $7,545 (employer with mostly H and L staff) in USCIS fees; Premium Processing is an extra $2,965.
• The proclamation requires $100,000 for certain petitions for people outside the US and runs until September 21, 2027; a federal court has vacated its implementation by USCIS.
• A proposed rule would charge $103,265 for every cap-subject petition; it has not been adopted.
• For the same assignment, the L-1 costs less in fees and needs no lottery.

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