From Tuesday, Keeping a Worker in the US Costs $4,000 More

From 9 September, US employers face substantially higher costs to keep foreign staff in place. Qualifying employers filing H-1B extension petitions will pay an additional $4,000 on top of the regular USCIS filing fees, and those filing L-1 intracompany transfer extensions will pay an additional $4,500. These are surcharges on extensions specifically, meaning they apply to workers already in the United States whose employers are seeking to continue an existing arrangement rather than bring someone new in.

The surcharges reach further into ordinary business travel than the headline numbers suggest. The L-1 category exists precisely to move managers, executives and specialised staff between offices of the same multinational, and it is the visa that underpins a large share of routine corporate mobility between the US and Europe, India and East Asia. When the cost of renewing a transfer rises by $4,500, the internal calculation about whether a role stays in the United States or moves shifts with it, particularly at companies that maintain dozens of such postings at once.

The increases arrive alongside a broader tightening of the US entry framework. Duration of Status ends for F-1 and J-1 students and J-1 scholars on 15 September, replacing open-ended admission with a fixed end date on the I-94 capped at four years, and cutting the F-1 post-completion grace period from 60 days to 30 on re-entry. Separately, from 30 September the ESTA fee for Visa Waiver Program travellers rises to $40 from $21, and land border I-94 forms go to $30. Taken together, the autumn represents one of the larger single-season repricings of US entry in recent years.

For anyone affected, timing is the only real lever. Petitions filed before the effective date are assessed under the old fee schedule, which is why immigration teams have spent late August and early September compressing filing calendars. Individual visa holders do not pay these surcharges directly, but they should expect employers to become more selective about which extensions they sponsor and to ask for renewal paperwork considerably earlier than in previous years. Anyone planning international travel around a pending extension should confirm status with their employer before booking.

Sources: Fragomen, NYU Office of Global Services