President Donald Trump and his administration have signed two new executive actions on September 18 to further restrict the H-1B visa program. The first action, a proclamation titled “Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers,” extends for one year a $100,000 fee for H-1B visas that Trump imposed last year. The second is an executive order titled “Enhancing Program Integrity and Interagency Coordination in the Administration of the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Program,” requiring federal agencies to implement measures to protect American workers from abuse of the program and ensure it serves the national interest.
The $100,000 fee is currently under litigation in federal court. In July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit upheld a lower court’s block on Trump’s 2025 proclamation, though the administration has appealed that ruling.
According to Trump’s September 18 proclamation, since the effective date of the 2025 Proclamation and subsequent promulgation of the DHS final rule, there have been measurable impacts on the H-1B program. These include a significant reduction in H-1B registrations by large IT outsourcing firms, with the largest IT staffing and outsourcing firms reducing their combined registrations from 24,946 to 2,055—a 92 percent decline. There has also been a substantial drop in consular processing requests for FY 2025 to FY 2027 cap seasons, nearly 97 percent lower than the previous year. Additionally, H-1B registration and selection data for FY 2027 show a shift toward higher-skilled workers, with registrations for beneficiaries holding at least a U.S. master’s degree rising from 45.1 percent of total registrants in FY 2026 to 66.1 percent in FY 2027.