The $100,000 H-1B Fee and Transfers: What's Actually True

The $100,000 H-1B fee was never written to cover transfers, and a federal court has the whole fee blocked as of August 2026

Someone forwarded you a headline about a $100,000 H-1B fee right as you're weighing a job offer that would mean transferring your H-1B to a new employer. Before that number becomes a reason to hesitate, it's worth separating two questions that keep getting merged into one: what the fee was ever written to cover, and what's actually being collected from anyone right now. Both answers are favorable for a transfer, but they come from different places, and the second one is still moving through the courts.

Here's what's verified as of mid-August 2026, with the dates that matter.

The short answer

No, the $100,000 H-1B fee does not apply to your transfer, for two independent reasons. First, Proclamation 10973's fee requirement was written to apply only to new H-1B petitions for beneficiaries who are outside the United States when the petition is filed — not to transfers, extensions, or amendments for workers already in the US on H-1B status. Second, a federal court vacated the entire fee on 2026-06-08, and the First Circuit refused to let the government reinstate it during its appeal on 2026-07-24. As of 2026-08-17, the $100,000 payment requirement is not being collected from anyone, transfer petition or otherwise, and the underlying appeal remains pending. Treat that last part as a live legal status, not a settled outcome — it can move.

Two questions that keep getting merged into one

When people ask "does the $100K fee apply to transfers," they're usually really asking two separate things at once:

1. Was the rule ever written to reach transfers in the first place? No. Proclamation 10973's supplemental fee was scoped to new H-1B petitions for workers being brought in from abroad — a narrower category than "any H-1B petition."
2. Is the fee, as written, currently being enforced against anyone? Also no, but for an entirely different reason: a court vacated it.

Both of those answers point the same direction for a transfer, which is why the confusion persists even though the underlying facts are clear. If you only remember one thing from the headlines, remember that the fee's scope and its enforcement status are two different arguments, and a transfer wins on both.

Timeline: how the fee's status changed in 2026

1. September 2025 — Proclamation 10973 was issued, establishing a supplemental fee framework tied to new H-1B petitions for beneficiaries outside the US, along with a separate 12-month restriction.
2. 2026-06-08 — The US District Court for the District of Massachusetts vacated the fee requirement, ruling it exceeded executive authority and violated the Administrative Procedure Act and separation-of-powers principles.
3. 2026-07-24 — The First Circuit Court of Appeals denied the government's motion to reinstate the fee while its appeal is pending.
4. As of 2026-08-17 — The $100,000 payment requirement is not being collected. The underlying appeal remains unresolved.
5. 2026-09-20 — Proclamation 10973's separate 12-month restriction is scheduled to sunset unless the administration extends it. This is a different deadline from the fee litigation and worth tracking on its own.

Did the fee ever apply to your filing type

Even setting the vacatur aside, the fee's text was scoped narrowly. Here's how it broke down by filing type before and independent of the court's ruling:

The important nuance in that "Yes" row: even that category is currently not being charged to anyone, because the whole fee is vacated pending appeal. A worker being sponsored from abroad right now is not paying the $100,000 either — but that status rests entirely on active litigation, which is a less stable place to stand than "never in scope to begin with."

What this means if you're transferring right now

Because a transfer was never inside the fee's written scope, and because the fee itself is fully vacated regardless of scope, there is no current scenario where an H-1B transfer petition owes $100,000. If a staffing agency, a recruiter, or even an employer's HR team tells you otherwise — that you need to budget for it, or that it's a reason your start date is delayed — that claim is either outdated or simply wrong as of this writing.

What the transfer petition does still cost is the same as it always has: the employer-paid base filing fee, any applicable training or fraud-prevention fees tied to their size and history of H-1B filings, and optional premium processing if either side wants a faster adjudication. None of that changed with Proclamation 10973 or its vacatur. If you want the full mechanics of how a transfer works — AC21 portability, when you can start the new job, what carries over from your current petition — that's covered separately in our H-1B transfer playbook.

Two related situations worth understanding while this plays out

The fee litigation doesn't gate your transfer, but it has made some candidates more cautious about anything that touches the litigation's edges. Two spots where that caution shows up:

Deciding between consular processing and staying in the US. Some transferring workers weigh whether to travel for a new visa stamp versus staying inside the US and relying on the transfer petition alone. That decision has its own tradeoffs unrelated to the $100K fee, and they're worth walking through deliberately — see our consular processing versus change-of-status decision guide.

Traveling while your new petition is pending. If your transfer timeline overlaps with a trip abroad, the questions you need answered are about petition receipt notices, valid visa stamps, and re-entry documentation — not the $100K fee, which doesn't touch a transfer regardless. Our guide on traveling while a petition is pending walks through the specific risks.

What could still change before your transfer closes

Two dates are worth holding in your head separately, because they're often conflated:

• The appeal. The First Circuit's July 2026 ruling only denied a stay — it didn't decide the appeal itself. A future ruling could theoretically alter the fee's status, though that wouldn't reach transfers even if it did, given the fee's narrower written scope.
• The September 20, 2026 sunset. Proclamation 10973's 12-month restriction is set to expire on that date unless extended. This is a separate mechanism from the fee litigation, and its expiration or extension doesn't automatically resolve the appeal.

Because both of these are live and dated, don't treat anything in this post as permanent. For the most current read on the fee's status across every H-1B filing type, not just transfers, see is the $100K H-1B fee still in effect.

Common mistakes

• Budgeting for a $100,000 line item on a transfer because of a headline from 2025. The fee was never scoped to reach transfers, and it's vacated besides.
• Treating "vacated" as "permanently gone." The government's appeal is still pending. A vacatur is a strong current status, not a final word.
• Confusing the fee litigation with the unrelated September 20, 2026 sunset date. They're two different deadlines governed by two different mechanisms.
• Letting an employer or agency's claim about the fee go unchallenged. If someone tells you the fee applies to your transfer or justifies a delay, ask for their source and get a second opinion.
• Making a resignation or travel decision today based on a status that could shift. Confirm the current posture with immigration counsel before anything irreversible.

Frequently asked questions

Does the $100,000 H-1B fee apply to my transfer in 2026? No, on two counts. The fee as written in Proclamation 10973 was aimed at new H-1B petitions for beneficiaries outside the United States, not at transfers, extensions, or amendments for workers already in the US. Separately, a federal court vacated the entire fee on 2026-06-08, so it is not being collected from anyone right now, transfer petitions included.

Is the $100,000 H-1B fee still in effect as of August 2026? No. The US District Court for the District of Massachusetts vacated Proclamation 10973's fee requirement on 2026-06-08, finding it exceeded executive authority and violated the Administrative Procedure Act and separation-of-powers principles. The First Circuit denied the government's request to reinstate the fee while its appeal proceeds on 2026-07-24, so as of mid-August 2026 the payment requirement is not being collected. The underlying appeal is still pending, so this status could change.

What happened to the $100,000 H-1B fee in court? A federal district court in Massachusetts vacated the fee on 2026-06-08, ruling that Proclamation 10973 exceeded the president's authority and violated the Administrative Procedure Act and separation-of-powers principles. The government asked the First Circuit to let it keep collecting the fee during its appeal, and the appeals court denied that request on 2026-07-24. The case is still working through the appeals process, so the outcome is not final.

Could the $100,000 H-1B fee come back for transfers? It is possible but not something to predict with confidence. The underlying appeal is still pending, and Proclamation 10973's separate 12-month restriction is set to sunset on 2026-09-20 unless the administration extends it. Because litigation like this can move quickly and reverse itself, confirm the fee's status with your employer's immigration attorney before making any decision that assumes today's status will hold indefinitely.

Who actually has to pay H-1B related fees during a transfer? Employer-paid fees, including the base I-129 filing fee and any applicable fraud-prevention or ACWIA training fee, are the petitioning employer's legal responsibility, not yours, under longstanding DOL and USCIS rules. Optional fees like premium processing can be paid by either party depending on the employer's policy. For a full breakdown of who is legally required to pay which fee, see who is legally required to pay H-1B fees — and if an employer or agent asks you to personally cover a fee that should be theirs, get an independent read from a licensed immigration attorney.

Weighing a transfer and want someone to walk through your specific timeline instead of guessing from headlines? F1Jobs works with H-1B candidates on the job-search side of a transfer every week — reach out and we'll point you toward the right next step.