By: Richard Hanus, Esq.
December 24, 2025
The daily whirlwind of U.S. immigration news is enough to make one’s head spin, including the latest developments on H-1B visas. Below are 3 of the top stories impacting H-1B visa workers and their petitioning employers.
1. In the coming months, a new H-1B visa lottery will be held and for the first time ever, the selection process will give an upper hand to entries involving higher salaries. Each year, tens of thousands of foreign nationals, along with their petitioning employers, compete for one of 85,000 H-1B visas which are allotted annually. In years past the demand for visas has been more than double or triple the supply and the only subgroup of entrants having an edge were those involving job offers for candidates who have earned a U.S. graduate degree. For the upcoming H-1B visa lottery, while that subgroup’s edge will continue, and a new weighted selection process will be implemented where the higher the salary offered for a given position, the better the chances for that entry to be selected.
Importantly, the $100,000 filing fee continues to be inapplicable to petitions for new H-1B visa workers already in the U.S. in another lawful nonimmigrant visa status and are seeking a change of status, e.g. an employer petition on behalf of an F-1 international student seeking to change their status to H-1B status (as opposed to the petitioned worker being overseas and petitioned for the first time). Also, unimpacted by this exorbitant fee are petitions for those already working in the U.S. on an H-1B visa seeking an extension of their current H-1B status or seeking to change their H-1B employers.
2. The latest on the $100,000 filing fee: In a decision issued last week, a federal court in Washington D.C. ruled that the Trump Administration’s imposition of a new $100,000 H-1B visa petition filing fee was legal and thus will now remain in effect for new H-1B petitions for foreign nationals not currently holding such status and are seeking entry into the U.S. on an H-1B visa. Importantly though, the status quo can change at any time especially since an appeal can be expected in this case and there remain two other pending federal lawsuits challenging the legality of the new fee. However, if the $100k fee was to remain in effect, it would likely spell the end of the vast majority of H-1B petitions for foreign nationals not already present in the U.S. in some other nonimmigrant status.
3. Current H-1B workers seeking overseas consular processing of new visa stamps must take note! With some exceptions, foreign nationals currently in the U.S. working in H-1B status are eligible to travel internationally and reenter the U.S. only if they have a current H-1B visa stamp in their passport. While many applicants have recently succeeded in obtaining new visa stamps at U.S. consular posts overseas, there have also been widespread reports of applicants having their visa process delayed, or having their appointments cancelled altogether. Both outcomes mean that H-1B applicants traveling overseas for visa appointments face the risk that their return to the U.S. may not be a quick as they had anticipated, and possibly faces months of waiting overseas. Further, H-1B visa applicants must continue to be mindful of ramifications of the Trump administration’s travel ban order (a pause on most visa processing for 29 designated nations) and the new State Department policy involving scrutiny of applicants’ social media activity.
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