What’s affected?
According to their October 20 update, USCIS will require the fee for petitions filed after September 20, 2025 “on behalf of beneficiaries who are outside the United States and do not have a valid H-1B visa.” Also, if “the alien is ineligible for a change of status or an amendment or extension of stay (e.g., is not in a valid nonimmigrant visa status or if the alien departs the United States prior to adjudication of a change of status request).” It now appears that many U.S. tech firms, when hiring workers in the U.S. will not need to pay the fee.
Aside from a few edge cases where an H-1B beneficiary’s status has lapsed or they leave the U.S. while a petition is pending, the administration mainly intends the fee to impact new H-1B petitions for beneficiaries who are outside the U.S., whether cap-subject or cap-exempt. Those filing extensions, amendments, and change of employer petitions for existing H-1B status holders will not have to pay the fee. Likewise, companies filing change of status petitions for beneficiaries in the U.S. will not have to pay the fee either.
Who’s affected?
Who then, hires people outside of the U.S., and sends them to the U.S. to work on H-1B visas? Companies like Tata Consultancy and Cognizant Technology Solutions (#2 and #7 on the list of employers with the most H-1B visas approved for the first 9 months of the current fiscal year). Capgemini, LTIMindtree, and HCL are also in the top 20, with Wipro, Compunnel, and Tech Mahindra close behind. These companies hire thousands of engineers and software developers in India and send them to the U.S. on H-1B visas to work on IT projects.
As President Trump’s proclamation asserts: “some of the most prolific H-1B employers are… IT outsourcing companies. Using these H 1B-reliant IT outsourcing companies provides significant savings for (U.S.) employers: one study of tech workers showed a 36 percent discount for H-1B “entry-level” positions as compared to full-time, traditional workers.” (This statistic comes from a 2020 report from the Economic Policy Institute.)
These IT outsourcing companies account for between 20-30% of all new H-1B visas. (It’s hard to be precise, though: exhaustive data on new cap-subject petitions isn’t readily available. This article puts it at around 20%, but it includes all petitions, not just new ones subject to the cap.) Note also, that cap-exempt employers (hospitals, universities and similar organizations) may be affected as well, although this may be addressed by a future change.
Who’s not affected? The good news for U.S. companies
For cap-subject U.S. companies who don’t outsource IT work, as long they remain mindful of the restrictions and qualifications in the proclamation, the restrictive fee may not drastically affect their hiring. U.S. companies that hire foreign students on F-1 (or J-1) visas for internships and training experience won’t have to pay the fee if they stay in the U.S. and change their status directly to H-1B. Likewise, as long as the beneficiary remains in the U.S., extending current H-1B petitions or transferring H-1B status from one employer to another won’t be affected.
The H-1B program, now and in the future
Meanwhile, analysis of H-1B data from USCIS shows that H-1B approval rates remain high. From November 2024 to June 30, 2025, USCIS approved 304,124 out of 310,462 H-1B petitions, a 98% rate. Clearly, since this includes data from the prior administration, it’s too early to tell if adjudicative trends are changing for H-1Bs. But since the overall approval rate is 98% for these nine months, they haven’t changed dramatically as of June 2025. Though significant changes to the H-1B program are planned for the future, the current environment for H-1Bs remains favorable for U.S. companies employing high-skilled, high-wage professionals for specialty occupations.