On Friday, September 19, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed a Proclamation, “Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers,” that took an important, initial, and incremental step to reform the H-1B visa program to curb abuses and protect American workers.
This Proclamation:
- Requires a $100,000 payment to accompany any new H-1B visa petitions submitted after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on September 21, 2025. This includes the 2026 lottery, and any other H-1B petitions submitted after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on September 21, 2025.
- Authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State to coordinate to take all necessary and appropriate action to implement this Proclamation.
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has so far taken such action by issuing guidance regarding the Proclamation, available here.
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection has also issued guidance, available here.
- The Department of State has posted guidance to all consular offices, consistent with the guidance from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and U.S. Customs and Border Protection guidance.
This Proclamation does not:
- Apply to any previously issued H-1B visas, or any petitions submitted prior to 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on September 21, 2025.
- Does not change any payments or fees required to be submitted in connection with any H-1B renewals. The fee is a one-time fee on submission of a new H-1B petition.
- Does not prevent any holder of a current H-1B visa from traveling in and out of the United States.
Further steps that will be taken to reform the H-1B program, as contemplated in the Proclamation, include:
- A rulemaking by the Department of Labor to revise and raise the prevailing wage levels in order to upskill the H-1B program and ensure that it is used to hire only the best of the best temporary foreign workers.
- A rulemaking by the Department of Homeland Security to prioritize high-skilled, high-paid aliens in the H-1B lottery over those at lower wage levels.
Additional reforms are also under consideration and will be announced in the coming months.