Current H-1B Workers Avoid $100,000 Trump Entry Fee, USCIS Says

A White House proclamation adding a $100,000 entry fee for H-1B workers applies only to future petitions for specialty occupation workers, according to the Trump administration.

The fee announced Friday threatens to have devastating consequences for the employment-based immigration system. It left H-1B workers currently abroad scrambling to make it back to the US before the entry fee takes effect Sept. 21.

But the proclamation doesn’t apply to foreign workers covered by petitions filed before that date or who currently hold valid H-1B visas, Joseph Edlow, director US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said in a memo Saturday.

“This proclamation only applies prospectively to petitions that have not yet been filed,” Edlow wrote.

The proclamation also doesn’t affect the ability of current visa holders to travel to or from the US, he said.