Immigration Update: H-1B Fee Increase Survives Disctrict Court Review and USCIS Issues Final Rule on H-1B Registration Selections

By Arturo Hernandez - McMahon Berger P.C.

December 30, 2025

On December 22, 2025, a U.S. District Court Judge ruled that President Trump did not exceed his executive authority by imposing a $100,000 filing fee requirement on new H-1B workers hired from outside the U.S. The administration had amended the immigration fee schedule through a September 19 proclamation that caught many businesses and immigration practitioners off guard. The proclamation has left many employers scrambling and unsure as to what this would mean for future hirings.

In its order, the court denied a request from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Association of American Universities to enjoin the fee and granted the administration’s motion for summary judgment. The Chamber argued the fee violated federal immigration statutes and exceeded the President’s authority, claiming the Immigration and Nationality Act allows the executive branch only to charge fees offsetting the cost of administering visa programs, and that new charges should go through public notice-and-comment rulemaking. The court disagreed, holding the administration had satisfied conditions for invoking authority under the Act, which empowers the President to restrict foreigners entry to the U.S.

“The lawfulness of the Proclamation and its implementation rests on a straightforward reading of congressional statutes giving the President broad authority to regulate entry into the United States for immigrants and nonimmigrants alike,” Judge Beryl A. Howell wrote.

The fee change in September was issued with so little warning, it left USCIS and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) scrambling to fill in the details in the subsequent weeks. DHS later clarified in October that only new petitions for H-1B workers who are currently outside the United States, and not current employees, would be affected and that the fee would not apply to foreign students approved for H-1B status within the U.S.

In other immigration news, on December 23, 2025, DHS announced a final rule to amend regulations governing the process by which USCIS selects H-1B registrations for unique beneficiaries for filing of H-1B cap-subject petitions. The rule implements a weighted selection process that will favor allocating H-1B visas to higher-skilled and higher-paid foreign nationals while maintaining the opportunity for employers to secure H-1B workers at all wage levels.

Under this process, H1-B registrations will be assigned to the relevant OEWS wage level and entered into the selection pool as follows: registrations for unique beneficiaries or petitions assigned wage level IV will be entered into the selection pool four times; those assigned wage level III will be entered into the selection pool three times; those assigned wage level II would be entered into the selection pool two times; and those assigned wage level I will be entered into the selection pool one time. Each unique beneficiary will only be counted once toward the numerical allocation projections, regardless of how many registrations were submitted for that beneficiary or how many times the beneficiary is entered in the selection pool. This is a change from the February 2024 Rule in which each beneficiary had the same chance of being selected, regardless of the number of registrations submitted on their behalf.

This does not change the end result of the lottery registration process — a prospective petitioner whose registration is selected is eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition based on the selected registration during the associated filing period.

This final rule is effective Feb. 27, 2026, and will be in place for the FY 2027 H-1B cap registration season beginning in March 2026.

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