USCIS Fee Schedule 2026: What Every Visa Fee Increase Means for H-1B and Green Card Filers

The 2026 USCIS fee schedule hits H-1B filers and green card applicants harder than any revision in a decade — here is exactly what changed and what you will owe.

You have an offer, or you are actively job-hunting, and somewhere in the back of your mind you know that every H-1B petition or green card application comes with a pile of USCIS fees. For years those fees were a predictable annoyance. In 2024 USCIS published a sweeping final rule that restructured nearly every fee in the schedule — increases that took effect April 1, 2024, and that remain the baseline going into 2026. Layer on top of that a separate White House proclamation imposing a $100,000 surcharge on new H-1B petitions from abroad, a premium processing fee bump in 2026, and an entirely new Asylum Program Fee on employer petitions, and the cost landscape for visa sponsorship looks materially different than it did just two years ago.

This guide breaks down what each change actually means in dollar terms, who pays what, and how the fee increases affect decisions you and your employer need to make right now — whether you are on F-1 OPT preparing for the H-1B cap, on H-1B and chasing a green card, or waiting for the I-485 queue to open.

Why USCIS fees changed so much in 2024 and 2026

USCIS is almost entirely fee-funded — less than 5 percent of its operating budget comes from congressional appropriations in most years. After running structural deficits through the early 2020s (a combination of the COVID-19 processing collapse and congressionally mandated backlogs), USCIS finalized a fee rule in January 2024 with an effective date of April 1, 2024. The agency stated that the average increase across petition types was approximately 26 percent, though individual forms saw increases ranging from 0 to more than 200 percent.

The rule also introduced a new fee category — the Asylum Program Fee — which USCIS designed to cross-subsidize asylum processing (which generates no filing fees) through employer petitions for foreign workers. That choice has been controversial, but it is the law as of 2026.

Complete H-1B fee table for 2026

Below is a consolidated view of every USCIS fee that typically applies to an H-1B petition. Not every employer owes every line.

A mid-sized employer sponsoring a software engineer from OPT will typically owe: $780 + $1,500 + $500 + $600 = $3,380 before premium processing. With premium: $6,345.

What employers can and cannot pass to workers

The ACWIA training fee and the fraud detection fee are employer-only — it is unlawful for an employer to deduct, require the worker to pay, or offset these fees against wages. If an employer asks you to cover those fees, that is a Department of Labor violation. The premium processing fee sits in a gray zone: USCIS does not prohibit workers from paying it, but if an employer makes premium processing a condition of employment, it must not reduce wages below the LCA-required prevailing wage.

The $100,000 proclamation fee — what it covers and what it doesn't

This is the single most misunderstood fee in circulation. The executive proclamation, which took effect September 21, 2025, imposes a $100,000 fee on new H-1B cap-subject petitions filed on behalf of beneficiaries who are outside the United States at the time of filing.

The fee does not apply to:

• H-1B cap-exempt petitions (universities, nonprofit research orgs, government research orgs — see our guide to cap-exempt employers)
• H-1B transfers, amendments, or extensions for workers already in the US
• F-1 OPT or STEM OPT holders who are inside the US and converting to H-1B status for the first time

If you are on STEM OPT working inside the US and your employer files for H-1B cap-subject status through the lottery, the $100,000 fee does not apply to you. That is a direct answer to the question our dedicated article on OPT and the $100K fee explores in full.

For workers currently abroad who want US employer sponsorship, the proclamation fee fundamentally changes the economics. A $100,000 sunk cost for a single petition dramatically reduces employer willingness to sponsor workers who are not already in the US.

H-1B premium processing in 2026

USCIS increased the H-1B premium processing fee to $2,965 effective March 1, 2026 (up from $2,805). The 15-business-day adjudication guarantee remains unchanged.

What premium processing actually buys you in practice: a committed decision (approval, denial, or RFE) within 15 business days of USCIS receiving the petition. If USCIS issues an RFE, the 15-business-day clock pauses until they receive your response, then restarts. A case with an RFE can still take three to four months even on premium processing.

Given that USCIS standard processing for H-1B petitions ran four to eight months at both California and Vermont service centers in 2025, premium processing is routinely worth the cost. Our H-1B premium processing guide has a complete cost-benefit analysis including how to handle the fee during a job transition.

Green card fees: PERM, I-140, and I-485

The green card pathway involves multiple federal agencies and multiple fee events. Here is the 2026 fee picture across each stage.

PERM labor certification (DOL — no filing fee)

PERM is filed with the Department of Labor, not USCIS, and has no government filing fee. However, the employer must fund the mandatory DOL-prescribed recruitment: print ads, job boards, notice at the worksite. A full PERM recruitment campaign costs employers a few thousand dollars in out-of-pocket recruitment expense plus attorney fees — none of which is a USCIS fee, but all of which the employer must bear.

If DOL audits the PERM — which happens in a material percentage of cases — the employer's attorney time for audit response adds significant cost. Our PERM labor certification audit guide covers what triggers audits and how to survive one.

I-140 immigrant petition

The I-140 fee increased from $700 to $715 in the 2024 rule. Premium processing for I-140 is available and increasingly common for EB-1A and EB-2 NIW self-petitions where the petitioner controls timing. Employer-sponsored EB-2 and EB-3 petitions routinely use I-140 premium to lock in a priority date faster, especially given India and China EB backlogs.

I-485 Adjustment of Status (the green card application itself)

This is where the 2024 fee rule had its most visible consumer-facing impact.

The biometrics fee is now bundled into the I-485 fee. Previously, applicants paid $85 separately for ASC biometrics appointments. That line item disappears in 2026.

I-131 (advance parole) and I-765 (EAD) filed concurrently with I-485 carry no additional filing fee. This is a meaningful change. Before the 2024 rule, concurrent filers paid $410 for EAD and $630 for advance parole on top of I-485. Bundling them at no extra cost saves concurrent filers roughly $1,000.

If you file I-765 or I-131 as a standalone (not concurrent with a pending I-485), the separate fees apply: $520 for I-765, $630 for I-131 as of 2026.

Fee waiver eligibility

USCIS expanded fee waiver criteria slightly in 2024. Individuals filing I-485 may request a waiver if paying the fee would cause severe financial hardship. However, employment-based adjustment applicants almost never qualify because they have a sponsoring employer with financial capacity. The waiver is more commonly used in family-based and humanitarian contexts.

The Asylum Program Fee — what it is and who owes it

The Asylum Program Fee is a new cross-subsidy created by the 2024 fee rule. It applies to employer I-129 petitions (H-1B, L-1, O-1, TN, and others) and I-140 petitions. The rationale: employers benefiting from employment-based immigration contribute to the cost of processing asylum applications, which generate no filing fees.

Standard rate: $600 per petition
Reduced rate (nonprofits, governmental research orgs, employers with ≤25 FTE): $300 per petition

The fee applies per petition, not per employee. An employer filing ten H-1B petitions owes $6,000 in Asylum Program Fees alone.

Immigration attorneys have raised constitutional challenges to this fee, arguing it is an unlawful tax rather than a fee. As of mid-2026, those challenges have not succeeded in federal court. Budget for it.

How fee increases affect employer behavior — and your job search

The cumulative effect of these fee increases is meaningful for international candidates:

1. Small and mid-sized employers feel the impact most. A $3,380 baseline H-1B fee (before premium processing) is a rounding error for a Fortune 500 company but a real line item for a 50-person startup. This reinforces the existing trend of smaller employers being more selective about which roles they will sponsor.

2. The $100,000 proclamation fee closes the door on offshore hiring for many employers. Companies that previously sponsored workers from abroad for hard-to-fill roles now face economics that push them toward cap-exempt alternatives (university partnerships, J-1) or cap-exempt employers entirely.

3. Employers are pricing H-1B sponsorship into total compensation math. Some employers now factor the $3,000–$6,000 per-petition cost into their offer decisions, particularly at the junior level. This is not new behavior, but it has become more explicit since 2024.

4. Green card timelines are independent of fees — but fee increases make employers less willing to restart PERM on a denial. If a PERM audit results in denial, the employer must restart from scratch — another full recruitment cycle, another attorney engagement, potentially thousands more in fees. Some employers respond by not refiling, which strands employees. If your employer is considering PERM, make sure there is a clear written commitment before you turn down other offers.

For Indian and Chinese nationals in EB-2 and EB-3, the backlog situation is tracked in our EB-2 India retrogression overview — the fee increases do not change the queue math, but they change employer willingness to stay in the queue with you.

Step-by-step: mapping fees to your visa stage

Here is a numbered sequence of the fee events you will encounter on the most common H-1B-to-green-card path, so you can see the full picture in one place:

1. H-1B cap lottery registration — $215 (employer pays, non-refundable, not applied to petition fee)
2. I-129 H-1B petition — $780 + $1,500 (ACWIA) + $500 (fraud) + $600 (asylum) = $3,380 minimum
3. Premium processing election — $2,965 (optional but common)
4. PERM recruitment — employer-paid recruitment costs, no USCIS fee
5. I-140 immigrant petition — $715 (employer pays; premium processing optional at +$2,965)
6. I-485 Adjustment of Status — $1,440 (you pay — employer may cover this but is not required to)
7. Concurrent I-765/I-131 — $0 additional when filed with I-485
8. I-131A (carrier documentation for re-entry) — $575 if you travel while I-485 pending
9. I-751 (conditions removed on green card, if applicable) — $750

Total government fees across the full path from H-1B petition through green card, not counting attorney fees: roughly $6,500–$10,000 per employment-based case, depending on whether premium processing is used at each stage. Our green card while on H-1B guide walks through the full PERM-to-I-485 sequence in detail.

Common mistakes that cost real money

• Assuming the employer covers all fees. The only fees legally prohibited from being passed to you are ACWIA and fraud fees. I-485, premium processing, and the biometrics fee (when standalone) may be structured as your cost depending on your offer letter. Read your offer letter and ask explicitly before accepting.

• Filing without premium processing on a tight OPT deadline. If your OPT or STEM OPT EAD expires and the H-1B is in standard processing, you lose work authorization. Premium processing buys certainty. Cap-gap rules provide some protection but only if your H-1B petition was timely filed.

• Ignoring the Asylum Program Fee in PERM-stage offers. Some smaller employers discover the Asylum Program Fee only at the I-129 filing stage and then hesitate to proceed. Ask your employer about their immigration budget before you decline competing offers.

• Not confirming whether the $100,000 fee applies to your situation. Workers on STEM OPT inside the US converting to H-1B are exempt. Workers abroad being sponsored by a cap-subject employer are not. The distinction matters enormously — confirm in writing with the employer's immigration counsel.

• Letting an I-140 withdrawal slide. If you change employers after I-140 approval but before I-485 approval, the new employer should file a new I-140. The old priority date is portable after 180 days of I-485 pendency under AC21, but you need to track this actively. A lapsed I-140 and a missed priority date can mean restarting years of green card work. See our AC21 portability guide for the full mechanics.

• Missing the biometrics bundling change and over-paying. If you file I-485 in 2026, you should not be paying a separate $85 biometrics fee. If a preparer charges it separately, that is an error or a scam.

Frequently asked questions

What is the total USCIS fee to file an H-1B petition in 2026?

For a standard cap-subject H-1B, employers owe the base I-129 fee of $780, the ACWIA training fee ($1,500 for employers with 26 or more full-time-equivalent employees, $750 for smaller employers), the fraud prevention and detection fee of $500, and the Asylum Program Fee of $600 (half that for nonprofits). Large H-1B-dependent employers owe an additional $4,000 Pub. L. 114-113 fee. Premium processing adds another $2,965 if elected. The total easily clears $3,000 to $4,000 for a typical employer.

Does the USCIS asylum surcharge fee apply to nonprofits and universities?

Nonprofits and governmental research organizations pay a reduced Asylum Program Fee of $300 instead of the standard $600. Cap-exempt institutions such as universities that file I-129 petitions directly with USCIS still owe the fraud fee and base I-129 fee, but the reduced asylum surcharge applies. Small employers with 25 or fewer full-time-equivalent employees also pay $300.

What is the I-485 filing fee in 2026 and what does it include?

The standalone I-485 (Adjustment of Status) fee is $1,440 for most applicants aged 14 through 78. That base fee now bundles biometrics, which were previously a separate $85 charge. Applicants under 14 filing with a parent pay $950. The I-131 advance parole and I-765 EAD filed concurrently with I-485 carry no additional filing fee, which is a meaningful savings compared to earlier years.

Does the $100,000 H-1B proclamation fee apply to workers already in the United States?

No. The White House proclamation fee of $100,000 applies only to new cap-subject H-1B petitions for beneficiaries who are outside the United States at the time of filing. H-1B transfers, extensions, and amendments for workers already in the US are not subject to this fee. OPT and STEM OPT holders changing to H-1B cap status for the first time who are inside the US are also exempt from the $100,000 charge.

How does the USCIS fee increase affect green card timelines for Indian and Chinese nationals?

The fee increase does not directly lengthen the priority-date backlog — that is driven by per-country caps set by Congress. However, higher PERM and I-140 fees mean employers bear more cost per sponsored worker, which can reduce willingness to file for lower-seniority employees or restart PERM when denied. Applicants from oversubscribed countries in EB-2 and EB-3 categories should file as early as possible and watch the Visa Bulletin closely, independent of fee changes.

Have questions about how the 2026 fee schedule affects your specific situation? Connect with the team at F1Jobs — we help international candidates navigate both the costs and the strategy of US visa sponsorship.