A fee that employers previously paid only when hiring a foreign worker will soon apply every time they renew one.
The Department of Homeland Security published a final rule on August 10, 2026 expanding the 9-11 Response and Biometric Entry-Exit Fee to cover all extension petitions for certain H-1B and L-1 employers. The rule takes effect September 9, 2026.
What changed
The 9-11 Biometric Fee is $4,000 for an H-1B petition and $4,500 for an L-1 petition.
Before this rule, the fee attached primarily to initial petitions and to change-of-employer filings. Under the final rule, covered employers must submit the fee for all extension-of-status petitions, regardless of whether the related fraud prevention and detection fee applies, and including extensions with the same employer.
The fee continues to apply unchanged to petitions seeking an initial grant of status. Amended petitions that do not include an extension request are exempt.
Who has to pay it
The surcharge is not universal. It applies only to petitioners that employ 50 or more people in the United States where more than 50 percent of those employees are in H-1B or L-1 status.
That threshold was designed to target so-called H-1B dependent employers, and in practice it lands hardest on IT staffing and outsourcing firms whose workforce composition crosses the 50 percent line. A large U.S. corporation sponsoring a handful of H-1B workers among thousands of employees does not meet the test.
For the firms that do meet it, the math is significant. A company renewing 200 H-1B workers now faces $800,000 in fees that did not previously exist on extension filings.
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Who is affected
Employers bear the legal obligation to pay. The 9-11 Biometric Fee, like the fraud prevention fee, cannot lawfully be passed to the employee.
Workers still feel the effect indirectly. When renewal costs rise sharply, some employers respond by tightening sponsorship criteria, extending fewer workers, or shifting roles offshore. Employees at affected firms should expect more selective sponsorship decisions and, in some cases, longer internal approval timelines before a petition is filed.
The rule also creates a filing-date cliff. Petitions filed before September 9 are governed by the prior fee structure.
What this means for you
If you are a worker at an H-1B or L-1 dependent employer with an extension coming up in the next several months, ask your immigration contact whether your petition can be filed before September 9. Extensions can generally be filed up to six months before the current status expires, which gives many workers a real window.
If you are an employer near the 50 percent threshold, confirm your current headcount composition. The determination is fact-specific and worth documenting.
If you are already past the deadline, budget for it rather than delay. Late filings create status gaps that cost far more than the fee.
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This article is for general information only and is not legal advice.
The broader trend
The expansion is part of a steady increase in the cost of employment-based immigration, arriving alongside new asylum fees, a proposed elimination of the 60-day grace period for terminated workers, and ongoing litigation over a separate six-figure H-1B payment requirement.
Taken together, these changes are reshaping the economics of sponsoring foreign workers. Cost, not just eligibility, is increasingly the gatekeeper.
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