H-1B Visa Presidential Proclamation: What You Need to Know for Your Global Mobility Visa Employees

The key provisions for this proclamation are as follows:

Primary Restriction: The proclamation requires a $100,000 application fee for new H-1B visas, with the restriction taking effect on September 21, 2025, at 12:01 a.m. EDT, and expiring 12 months later unless extended. Prior to this new proclamation, the cost for an H-1B petition ranged from $1,000 to $5,000 (excluding legal/attorney fees).

Scope: The restrictions apply specifically to H-1B workers outside the United States who are seeking to enter and do not yet have an approved petition and with whom no existing visas have been revoked.

Exceptions :The Secretary of Homeland Security can waive the restriction for individuals, companies, or entire industries if their hiring is deemed in the national interest and poses no security threat.

Additional Measures: The proclamation also directs the Secretary of Labor to revise prevailing wage levels and the Secretary of Homeland Security to prioritize high-skilled, high-paid workers in future regulations.

A proposed Department of Homeland Security regulation would change the existing lottery process to give greater odds of selection to beneficiaries with the highest wages, according to the Department of Labor's four-level prevailing wage system.

Under the proposed system, beneficiaries registered for the existing 85,000 H-1B cap would be entered into a weighted selection pool based on the wage offered by their prospective employer. A beneficiary offered a Level 4 wage (the highest level) would be entered into the selection pool four times; a Level 3 beneficiary, three times; Level 2, twice; and Level 1, once.

The proposed weighted selection system would not take effect until the regulation cleared the federal rulemaking process and was finalized, which typically takes several months. Court challenges to a final rule are likely.