The H-1B $100K Fee Isn't Gone: What Founders Actually Face in 2026

Key takeaways

• The H-1B $100k fee is being collected right now. A federal court struck it down on June 8, 2026 — but the same judge reinstated it four days later, on June 12, 2026. As of early July 2026, USCIS is charging it again. The "it's gone" headline was reversed almost immediately, and quietly.
• It's a $100,000 payment on new petitions for people abroad. The charge is an eligibility condition tied to new H-1B petitions where the beneficiary is outside the United States and can only be approved through a consulate. It is not a blanket tax on every H-1B.
• A lot of cases are outside it. People already in the US in valid status — approved through a change of status, extension, or amendment — and existing valid H-1B visa holders generally are not hit by the $100,000 payment.
• $100,000 ≠ $215. The proclamation payment is a completely separate layer from the ordinary $215 H-1B registration fee. Don't budget them as the same line item.
• Canadian and Mexican founders have a track this fee doesn't touch. The USMCA TN classification isn't subject to the $100,000 payment and has no lottery — but only for a defined list of professions, and it isn't a green-card path.

Is the H-1B $100k fee still in effect in 2026? Yes — it came back four days after it was struck down

Short answer: yes. As of early July 2026, the H-1B $100k fee is being collected again. If you saw the June 8 news that a court had thrown it out and assumed the problem had disappeared, that assumption is out of date — the ruling was paused four days later, and USCIS resumed charging.

Here's the timeline, with each date year-stamped so the order is unmistakable:

• September 19, 2025 — a presidential proclamation, Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers, is signed.
• September 21, 2025, 12:01 a.m. EDT — it takes effect. From this point, a $100,000 payment becomes an eligibility condition for new H-1B petitions filed for affected beneficiaries.
• June 8, 2026 — Judge Leo Sorokin, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, vacates the fee in full, describing it as an unlawful tax that exceeded the government's statutory authority, was procedurally deficient, and was arbitrary and capricious — in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.
• June 12, 2026 (Friday) — the same judge temporarily stays his own ruling, restoring USCIS's authority to collect the payment while the government seeks emergency appellate review.
• June 18, 2026 — the government formally moves to keep that stay in place for the duration of the appeal.
• Now — the appeal is captioned State of California, et al. v. Mullin, et al., No. 26-01699 (1st Cir.). The First Circuit is expected to decide soon whether the fee stays in place while the case is heard.
• Around September 21, 2026 — separately from the court fight, the proclamation is scheduled to sunset 12 months after it took effect, unless the administration renews or modifies it. There's no guidance yet on what happens to petitions already in the pipeline if it's allowed to lapse.

The reason so many founders believe the fee is dead is simple: for a lot of people, the story stopped at the June 8 headline. The reversal four days later got a fraction of the attention. So the practical picture in mid-2026 is a whipsaw — struck down, then reinstated, now under appeal.

One honest caveat, because it matters for anything you're about to file: this is still moving through the courts and can change again with little notice. The state of play described here is as of early July 2026. Before you submit a petition or wire anything, confirm the current court status and check the USCIS newsroom — the number could be lifted or reimposed between when you plan and when you file.

Who actually pays the $100,000 — and who doesn't

This is where most of the confusion lives, so it's worth separating carefully. The payment is not a flat surcharge on every H-1B. It attaches to a specific fact pattern.

In plain terms: the payment is aimed at bringing a new worker into the country from abroad through a consulate. Someone who is already in the US and lawfully transitions into H-1B without leaving is, as a general matter, on a different footing. Eligibility rules are specific, though, so treat this as the shape of the rule — not a determination for your candidate.

Two things people routinely mix up — don't:

• The $100,000 payment is not the $215 registration fee. The ordinary H-1B electronic registration fee is $215 per registration. That's a different, long-standing government fee at a different layer of the process. The proclamation payment sits on top of and entirely apart from it. When coverage refers loosely to "the H-1B fee," it's usually collapsing these two into one — they are not one.
• The wage-weighted lottery is a separate change. There's a distinct policy shift toward weighting H-1B selection by wage level. It's real, but it's a different track from this payment — don't blend the two when you plan.

What this means if you're hiring or sponsoring a foreign engineer right now

Most coverage of this story explains the policy. Almost none of it answers the question a small founder is actually asking: I want to hire a specific person — what do I do about it? Here's the practical version.

Start by mapping where your candidate already is. The single biggest cost fork is whether your hire can be approved inside the US or has to be approved abroad through a consulate. If they're already here in valid status — F-1 with OPT, H-4, L-2, TN, and so on — a petition that keeps them in status (change of status / extension / amendment) is the path that tends to sit outside the $100,000 payment. If the only way to approve them is a visa issued at a consulate abroad, that's the fact pattern the payment targets.

Budget the two fees separately. When you model the cost of a hire, keep the $215 registration fee and the possible $100,000 payment on different lines. Treating them as one number either over- or under-states your real exposure, depending on which one you drop.

Assume the number can move before you file. Two separate clocks are running. One is the appeal, which could lift the fee or leave it in place. The other is the proclamation's own 12-month sunset — it's scheduled to expire around September 21, 2026 unless the administration renews it. So the figure you plan around in July may not be the figure in force when you actually file. Build a little optionality into your timeline: if you have a candidate who can be approved from inside the US, that route is less exposed to the court swings than a fresh consular case.

Keep the alternative doors in view. H-1B isn't the only classification. For Canadian and Mexican professionals there's TN (below); for people of extraordinary ability there's O-1; intracompany transfers have L-1. Each has its own eligibility gate, and none is a universal substitute — but if the H-1B math has gotten ugly for a particular hire, it's worth checking whether another door fits before you commit six figures.

This is general information about a fast-moving immigration change, not legal or immigration advice. Eligibility for any of these paths is specific to the person and the petition — confirm your situation with a licensed US immigration attorney before you file or pay anything.

The cross-border angle: Canadians, Mexicans, and the TN track this fee doesn't touch

If you're a Canadian (or Mexican) founder — or you're trying to hire a Canadian engineer into a US role — there's a track that sits entirely outside this whole drama.

Under USMCA, Canadian and Mexican citizens can work in the US in TN status. A TN is not subject to the $100,000 proclamation payment, has no annual cap and no lottery, and costs far less — a modest government filing fee rather than a six-figure payment. For the right role and the right person, it can be dramatically simpler than an H-1B.

The caveats matter, though, and it's easy to oversell this, so be precise:

• TN only covers professions on the USMCA designated list. If the role and the person's credentials don't map to a listed occupation, TN isn't available — it's not a catch-all.
• TN requires nonimmigrant (temporary) intent. It is a temporary work classification, not a step toward a green card, and pursuing permanent residence while on TN creates complications.
• It's a distinct track, not a drop-in H-1B replacement. Think of it as a separate door that this particular fee doesn't reach — for eligible professions — rather than a workaround.

There's a second read here for Canadian founders specifically. If hiring into the US has become this volatile — a cost that a court can add or remove in the span of four days — then building the company's center of gravity in Canada, and hiring the engineer there, stops being a fallback and becomes a legitimate strategic option. If that's on your table, the Canadian side has its own address and setup questions: which programs actually check a business address is covered in using a Canadian business address for visa applications, and the founder-immigration route specifically in the Start-Up Visa address question.

The layer a court can't flip in four days

Here's the thing worth sitting with. A court changed the cost of an H-1B hire by $100,000 in four days — struck down on June 8, back on June 12. That's the reality of building on top of visa policy: it's a variable you don't control, and it can move faster than your hiring plan.

You can't fix that. What you can do is make sure the parts of your company that don't swing on a court docket are solid — the same logic we apply to AI vendor dependency, where access can be switched off by forces outside your control. Your registered business address is on the stable side of that line. No proclamation, no stay, no appellate panel changes where your company officially sits, where its mail lands, or which address your bank, your registry, and your tax authority have on file. What that address needs to be — and why your home address usually isn't it — is covered in what a registered business address actually requires.

That's the layer worth getting right once, precisely because everything above it is in flux. Auteur runs a magazine for founders and a virtual office line underneath it: a real business address you control, while the immigration math keeps whipsawing. See how the virtual office works — and for a Canadian founder building the company's base at home, you can reserve a Toronto or Vancouver address.

FAQ

How much is the H-1B fee in 2026? There are two different numbers, and they're often conflated. The ordinary H-1B electronic registration fee is $215 per registration. Separately, the September 2025 proclamation adds a $100,000 payment as an eligibility condition on new petitions for beneficiaries who are abroad and must be approved through a consulate. That $100,000 payment was struck down on June 8, 2026, reinstated on June 12, 2026, and — as of early July 2026 — is being collected again while the case is on appeal.

Who is exempt from the $100k H-1B fee? As a general matter, the payment does not hit existing valid H-1B visa holders, or petitions approved through a change of status, extension of stay, or amendment for someone already inside the US in valid status. It's aimed at new petitions where the person is outside the US and can only be approved via consular notification. Eligibility is specific to the case, so confirm with an immigration attorney.

Is the $100k fee the same as the H-1B registration fee? No. The $215 registration fee is the long-standing electronic registration cost. The $100,000 payment is a separate charge created by the September 2025 proclamation. They sit at different layers of the process and should be budgeted separately — collapsing them into "the H-1B fee" is where a lot of the confusion comes from.

Can Canadians avoid the $100k fee with a TN visa? For eligible professions, yes — the USMCA TN classification is not subject to the $100,000 payment and has no lottery or cap. But TN only covers occupations on the USMCA designated list, requires temporary (nonimmigrant) intent, and isn't a path to permanent residence, so it's a distinct track rather than a universal H-1B substitute.

Bottom line

The H-1B $100k fee is not gone. It was vacated on June 8, 2026, reinstated on June 12, 2026, and — as of early July 2026 — is being collected again while State of California v. Mullin moves through the First Circuit. If you're hiring, three things matter: figure out whether your candidate can be approved inside the US (which tends to sit outside the payment), keep the $215 registration fee and the $100,000 payment on separate lines, and — because this is under appeal — confirm the current status before you file.

For Canadian and Mexican founders, the TN track sidesteps this fee entirely for eligible professions. And whichever way the courts go, the one part of your setup that a ruling can't reprice in four days is where your business actually lives — so put that on solid ground while everything above it keeps moving.