H-1B $100,000 Fee: What the First Quarter of Data Does and Doesn't Show
The U.S. imposed a $100,000 fee on certain new H-1B petitions starting September 21, 2025. This page asks what the Department of Labor's LCA disclosure data does — and does not — reveal about employer behavior in the first quarter after the rule took effect. It shows questions, data, and limitations. It does not draw causal conclusions.
What the rule does
On September 19, 2025, the White House issued a Presidential Proclamation titled Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers. The rule took effect at 12:01 AM EDT on September 21, 2025 and applies for 12 months unless extended. It requires a $100,000 payment to accompany any new H-1B visa petition subject to the proclamation.
The fee applies to:
- New H-1B petitions where the worker enters the U.S. from abroad (consular processing) filed on or after September 21, 2025.
The fee does NOT apply to:
- Change-of-status petitions (e.g., F-1 students in the U.S. converting to H-1B) — historically the majority of cap-selected beneficiaries
- Extensions of stay
- Amendments to existing petitions
- Transfers of H-1B workers already in the U.S. to new employers
- Renewals
On December 24, 2025, the U.S. District Court for D.C. upheld the fee under Section 212(f) authority. An appeal by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Association of American Universities is fast-tracked in the D.C. Circuit. Additional lawsuits are pending. As of 2026-04-14, the fee remains in effect.
What this data can and cannot show
- Aggregate LCA filing volume, quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year
- Total worker positions covered by LCAs
- Month-by-month trajectory within each quarter
- Petition-intent composition (new employment, continued, change-of-status, etc.)
- Breakdown by employer, city, SOC, wage level, NAICS sector
- Who paid the $100,000 fee (that is a USCIS petition-level fact, not DOL LCA)
- Whether a given LCA resulted in a fee-subject petition (LCAs don't distinguish consular processing from change of status)
- Causation — only observed changes, not attribution
- The primary fee impact, which will appear in FY 2027 cap season filings (summer 2026 and later)
- Whether any national-interest exemptions have been granted
Question 1: Did aggregate filing volume change in Q1?
Certified H-1B LCAs in FY 2026 Q1 totaled 79,023 — the lowest Q1 count since FY 2021 (pandemic year) and -18.2% vs the 5-year FY 2021–2025 Q1 mean of 96,581. But total worker positions covered by those LCAs were 166,558, +1.0% vs FY 2025 Q1. Employers appear to be filing fewer, larger LCAs — positions per LCA jumped from 1.60 to 2.11.
FY 2022 Q1 is an outlier (pandemic-recovery bounceback with many smaller filings); treat it as context, not as a baseline for FY 2026.
FY 2026 Q1 worker positions are essentially unchanged vs FY 2025 Q1 and higher than the FY 2024 trough — the "filings down" headline overstates the worker-volume story.
Question 2: What did the month-by-month trajectory look like?
This is the most striking finding in the data and the only metric that shows a clean, unprecedented break from historical variation. In October 2025 — the first full month after the rule took effect — employers filed 1,136 H-1B LCAs, compared to a 5-year October average of 31,041. That is a -96.3% drop. November 2025 then surged to 41,231 — +53.9% vs the 5-year November average. December normalized.
- System-wide administrative pause. DOL processing, employer confusion, or both — during the rule transition. USCIS issued implementation guidance around October 20, 2025.
- Employer uncertainty. Employers may have held filings until legal counsel interpreted the new rule.
- Real cost-benefit response. Employers filed fewer because of the fee itself.
Question 3: Did petition-intent composition shift?
The DOL LCA file contains six petition-intent columns that describe the worker-position purpose of each LCA. These are DOL classifications at the time of filing, not USCIS petition outcomes. They show what employers said they intended, not what ultimately happened.
| Category | FY 2025 Q1 | FY 2026 Q1 | Change | Fee status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NEW_EMPLOYMENT | 36,051 | 29,617 | -17.8% | Could be exposed |
| CONTINUED_EMPLOYMENT | 48,732 | 39,583 | -18.8% | Exempt |
| CHANGE_PREVIOUS_EMPLOYMENT | 15,176 | 22,637 | +49.2% | Exempt |
| NEW_CONCURRENT_EMPLOYMENT | 795 | 585 | -26.4% | Could be exposed |
| CHANGE_EMPLOYER | 30,487 | 34,276 | +12.4% | Exempt |
| AMENDED_PETITION | 33,659 | 39,860 | +18.4% | Exempt |
| Total worker positions | 164,900 | 166,558 | +1.0% |
The DOL NEW_EMPLOYMENT column identifies LCAs certifying workers for new H-1B positions. It does
not identify which of those workers will enter the U.S. from abroad (fee applies) versus change status
from within the U.S. — F-1 students, L-1, TN, O-1 → H-1B (fee does not apply).
Historically, the majority of cap-subject H-1B beneficiaries are F-1 students already in the U.S., meaning a large share of "new employment" LCAs typically convert to change-of-status petitions that are exempt from the fee. LCA data cannot distinguish these populations. The -17.8% change in NEW_EMPLOYMENT positions is therefore a measure of "new employment LCAs," not "fee-subject petitions."
Question 4: Did different sectors behave differently?
If the October crater were a direct employer response to the $100,000 fee, you would expect sector-differentiated behavior: universities and hospitals are largely cap-exempt and have minimal fee exposure, while commercial employers are the bulk of fee-exposed consular processing. Below is what the data actually shows for October 2025 filings (RECEIVED_DATE) by NAICS sector.
| Sector | Oct 2024 | Oct 2025 | Change | Fee exposure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academic (NAICS 61) | 2,310 | 76 | -96.7% | Low (largely cap-exempt) |
| Healthcare (NAICS 62) | 1,341 | 68 | -94.9% | Low (teaching hospitals cap-exempt) |
| Commercial (other) | 31,700 | 992 | -96.9% | High (most fee-exposed sector) |
All three sectors show nearly identical ~95% October drops, even though the fee exposes commercial employers far more than academic or healthcare. A naive "employers responded to the fee" hypothesis would predict sector-differentiated behavior. The data does not show that.
This does not prove the fee had no effect on commercial employers — it means the October filing freeze specifically is more consistent with a system-wide administrative pause (DOL processing lag, employer confusion, or both) during the rule transition than with a sector-specific cost-benefit response. The November surge is also universal across sectors, consistent with backlog catch-up.
What we still don't know
- Actual fee impact on hiring decisions. The primary stress test is the FY 2027 H-1B cap filing season (March–April 2026), which will appear in DOL disclosures around summer 2026 or later.
- Entry method breakdown. LCAs cannot distinguish consular processing from change of status. USCIS petition-level data would answer this but is not publicly available at this granularity.
- Pre-rule front-loading. Whether employers accelerated filings in August and early September 2025 before the rule took effect. Requires looking at FY 2025 Q4 data.
- Exemption usage. Whether the Secretary of Homeland Security has granted any national-interest exemptions.
- Court outcome. An appeal and multiple lawsuits are pending; a preliminary injunction is considered possible in April–May 2026. Legal status may change.
- USCIS Employer Data Hub cross-reference. Whether LCA filing volumes track actual USCIS H-1B petition counts at the employer level.
Methodology
Data source: U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Foreign Labor Certification, LCA Disclosure Files — raw Excel files published quarterly at dol.gov/agencies/eta/foreign-labor/performance.
Filter: VISA_CLASS in {H-1B, H-1B1 Chile, H-1B1 Singapore}; CASE_STATUS contains 'Certified'.
Q1 definition: October 1 – December 31 of each fiscal year (U.S. federal fiscal year runs Oct 1 – Sep 30). FY 2026 Q1 = Oct 1 – Dec 31, 2025 — the first full quarter after the fee took effect on September 21, 2025.
RECEIVED_DATE vs DECISION_DATE: RECEIVED_DATE is when the employer filed the LCA with DOL; DECISION_DATE is when DOL certified or denied it. RECEIVED_DATE is the better proxy for employer behavior around a rule change; DECISION_DATE is affected by DOL processing delays. We use RECEIVED_DATE for the month-by-month trajectory and for sector analysis.
Sector split: NAICS prefix 61xx = Academic (Educational Services), 62xx = Healthcare (Health Care and Social Assistance), all other = Commercial. Universities are cap-exempt; many teaching hospitals are cap-exempt.
Provenance: The FY 2026 Q1 raw XLSX file was verified against a fresh DOL download on 2026-04-11 (checksums match).
Reproducibility: All numbers on this page are computed from the raw DOL XLSX files by
etl/compute_100k_fee_page_stats.py, which wraps
etl/analyze_multi_year_q1.py and
etl/analyze_sector_split_q1.py.
The output is saved to data/site/h1b_100k_fee_stats.json and imported at build time.
See also: general site methodology.
Primary sources
Frequently asked questions
Did H-1B filings drop after the $100K fee?
Certified H-1B LCAs in FY 2026 Q1 totaled 79,023, -23.3% vs FY 2025 Q1. But total worker positions were 166,558 — only +1.0%. Employers are filing fewer, larger LCAs. The LCA-count drop substantially overstates the worker-volume story.
Can LCA data show whether companies paid the fee?
No. LCAs are a DOL labor certification filed before an H-1B petition. The $100K fee is charged by USCIS on a specific subset of petitions (consular-processing new hires). LCA data does not record entry method or petition outcome, and cannot show who paid the fee.
Why did October 2025 filings drop 96%?
October 2025 had 1,136 LCAs filed vs a 5-year October mean of 31,041. The drop is the only unprecedented finding in the data, but it is universal across academic, healthcare, and commercial sectors — contrary to what a direct fee response would predict. The November 2025 surge to 41,231 (+53.9% vs 5-year mean) is consistent with backlog catch-up after a system-wide administrative pause. USCIS issued implementation guidance around October 20, 2025.
When will we know the actual fee impact?
The primary test is the FY 2027 H-1B cap filing season (March–April 2026), when fee-exposed new-hire petitions concentrate. DOL disclosure files from that period typically publish several months later. This page will be updated when new DOL data lands.
Is a specific company still sponsoring H-1B after the fee?
Every employer page on H1BScope now shows a FY 2026 Q1 sponsorship card with the company's certified LCA count for Oct–Dec 2025 and a 7-year Q1 chart comparing against pre-rule baselines. The same card appears on every city page.
This page presents public data and clearly stated limitations. It is not legal, financial, or immigration advice. Last updated 2026-04-14.