All new H-1B visa petitions submitted after September 21, 2025, including those for the FY2026 lottery, will require payment of the $100,000 fee, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had said in an 'H-1B FAQ' document released on Sunday.

The proclamation "requires a $100,000 payment to accompany any new H-1B visa petitions submitted after 12:01 am eastern daylight time on September 21, 2025," the FAQ document said.

This includes applications for the 2026 lottery and any other new H-1B filings beyond that date, it added.

The USCIS had earlier said in a statement on Saturday that the fee would apply only to new, prospective petitions that had not yet been filed, but had not specified the exact date and time when the rule would take effect.

A White House official had told PTI that the $100,000 fee will "first apply in the next upcoming lottery cycle.”

The USCIS clarified that the fee does not apply to any petitions filed before the 12:01 am deadline on Sept 21, previously issued H-1B visas, renewal petitions, and H-1B holders re-entering the US.

The proclamation also authorises the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of State (DOS) to coordinate implementation steps, the FAQ document said.

Further planned reforms under the proclamation include, a proposed rulemaking by the Department of Labour to revise and raise the prevailing wage levels in order to upskill the H-1B programme and ensure that it is used to hire “only the best of the best” temporary foreign workers.

The planned reforms also include a DHS rulemaking to prioritise high-skilled, high-paid workers in the H-1B lottery system.

The Department of State has issued guidance to all consular posts consistent with USCIS and US Customs and Border Protection policies.

A day after Trump signed the proclamation on Friday, officials had clarified that the USD 100,000 fee requirement for H1B visas does not apply to current visa holders and is a one-time payment applicable only to new petitions, bringing significant relief to thousands of panic-stricken professionals, including from India, concerned over being impacted by the new rule.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, commenting on the fee, had said that “renewals, first times, the company needs to decide. Is that person valuable enough to have $100,000 a year payment to the government, or they should head home and they should go hire an American?”

The initial registration period for the FY2027 H-1B cap is expected to begin around March next year.

Weekend panic for H-1Bs

Panic, confusion and anger reigned as workers on H-1B visas from India and China were forced to abandon travel plans and rush back to the US over the weekend.

Tech companies and banks sent urgent memos to employees, advising them to return before a deadline of 12:01 a.m. EDT on Sunday (0401 GMT or 9.31 IST), and telling them not to leave the country.

A White House official on Saturday clarified that the order applied only to new applicants and not holders of existing visas or those seeking renewals, addressing some of the confusion over who would be affected.

But Trump's proclamation a day before had already set off alarm bells in Silicon Valley.

Several Indian nationals at San Francisco airport said they cut short vacations.

“It is a situation where we had to choose between family and staying here," said an engineer at a large tech company whose wife had been on an Emirates flight from San Francisco to Dubai that was scheduled to depart at 5:05 p.m. local time on Friday.

The flight was delayed by more than three hours after several Indian passengers who received news of the order or memos from their employers demanded to deplane, said the person who spoke on condition of anonymity. At least five passengers were eventually allowed off, the engineer said.

A video of the incident was circulating on social media, showing a few people leaving the plane. Reuters could not independently verify the veracity of the video.

The engineer's wife, also an H-1B visa holder, chose to head to India to care for her sick mother.

"It's quite tragic. We have built a life here,” he told Reuters.

Companies including Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Goldman Sachs were among those that sent urgent emails to their employees with travel advisories.

Amazon gave guidance to staff on Saturday, after clarity emerged on who would be impacted, that no action was required for staff currently holding H-1B visas, according to a source who had viewed an internal portal. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside business hours.

As of Sunday, some of the panic had dissipated, IBM vice chairman Gary Cohn said on CBS’s Face the Nation.

"I think it caused a panic over the weekend because people weren't sure what was going on with the existing H-1B visas," said Cohn. "It's been cleaned up over the weekend, so at this point, there's not a panic in the system."

Cohn praised the move as ultimately good for the economy.

"I actually think this is a good idea, if you understand the H-1B visa program in the United States," Cohn said. "Historically, it has been a lottery system."

The new policy also drew support from Netflix Chairman Reed Hastings, who said in a social media post it will eliminate the need for the lottery and provide more certainty for those who get the H-1B visas.