Policy Update · Effective September 9, 2026 · JBNP Law
A fee that covered employers used to pay only on new hires and employer changes now applies every time they extend someone's status. The rule took effect September 9, and it applies to petitions filed on or after that date.
DHS published a final rule on August 10, 2026 amending the regulations on the 9-11 Response and Biometric Entry-Exit Fee for H-1B and L-1 visas. It took effect on September 9, 2026.
In the agency's own words, the rule requires "covered employers [to] submit the 9-11 Biometric Fee for all extension of status petitions, regardless of whether the related fraud prevention and detection fee applies, which includes extension of status petitions that do not involve a change of employer." The fee "continues to apply unchanged to petitions seeking an initial grant of status."
DHS frames this as correcting its own interpretation of the statute rather than creating a new fee. The practical effect is the same either way: a category of petition that did not carry the fee now carries it.
Three pieces have to line up before this touches you.
You have to be a "covered employer." That term comes from section 402 of Public Law 111-230: employers with 50 or more total employees in the United States where more than 50 percent of those U.S. employees are in H-1B or L-1 status. Most small and mid-size employers are nowhere near this. Consultancies and staffing-model companies frequently are.
The amounts are $4,000 for H-1B and $4,500 for L-1. Congress set them in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, doubling the earlier 2010 supplemental fee.
The filing date controls. The rule applies to petitions filed on or after September 9, 2026. A straight extension filed on September 8 is not subject to it.
Why this is a change worth noticing: the fee used to ride along with the Fraud Prevention and Detection Fee, and that fee only applies to initial grants and change-of-employer petitions. So a covered employer extending an existing employee with no change of employer simply didn't pay it. That gap is now closed.
For covered employers, we're rebuilding the annual budget line. If you run a large H-1B or L-1 population, every renewal cycle now carries $4,000 or $4,500 per head that it didn't carry before. On a book of a hundred extensions that is real money, and it is not a cost most people had forecast.
We're also re-running the 50/50 test rather than assuming last year's answer holds. It is an aggregate count of U.S. employees against U.S. employees in H-1B or L-1 status, and hiring, attrition, or an acquisition can move a company across the line in either direction. Companies that have grown their domestic non-visa headcount may have fallen out of "covered employer" status without noticing.
And we're looking at it next to everything else stacking up on H-1B and L-1 filings this year, including the separate $103,265 cap-subject fee DHS has proposed. Employers planning headcount for next year should be modelling the combined number, not each announcement in isolation.
This rule is final and in effect, so there is no comment window left. The open question is whether it draws a legal challenge the way other recent fee actions have. Nothing has been filed that changes the September 9 effective date.
If you're a covered employer with extensions queued up, talk to us before the next batch goes out. Book a consultation and we'll price the cycle properly.
This post is general information, current as of when it was written — not legal advice, and no substitute for talking to an attorney about your own case. This area is changing quickly, and reading this doesn't make us your lawyers. Please get advice on your specific situation before you act.