Some immigration practitioners are anticipating a long-term increase in demand for their services after President Donald Trump’s proclamation that added a $100,000 fee on top of existing costs for new applicants for H-1B visas.
Immigration practice leaders with three firms said their attorneys spent the weekend fielding questions from befuddled clients after Trump issued the proclamation Friday night for the new fee for the specialty occupation visa.
Yet, despite subsequent guidance from Joseph Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and a later FAQ the White House posted on its website, experts say a number of questions still remain, such as who pays if an employee changes jobs and which employers must pay the new fee.
Grace Shie, leader of the global mobility and migration practice at Mayer Brown, said she foresees an increase but not necessarily a surge in demand for immigration counsel.
“When there’s a legal change of this nature, all impacted employers need to evaluate how that impacts them,” she said. “And they’re all going to be reaching out to legal counsel.”
Shie said the need in the short term for legal services is for helping “employers understand what the presidential proclamation means for their employees.”
“And, in the longer term, if employers will need to evaluate how the requirement impacts their hiring of employees that require H-1B sponsorship,” she said.
Bernhard Mueller of Ogletree Deakins Smoak & Stewart said the proclamation likely will be challenged in court and “we definitely will see an increase in demand for legal services in connection with this issue.
“We cannot say if this will significantly dampen companies’ willingness to sponsor H-1B workers,” said Mueller, who is co-chair of the firm’s immigration practice group.
He said questions still remain around the status of petitions filed after the Sept. 20 deadline, as well as if it will affect such entities as universities and nonprofits
In addition, relatively smaller companies employing H-1B workers may be unable to pay the $100,000 fee, he said.
“It is a significant fee and with the intended consequences [that] companies do not sponsor H-1B workers,” Mueller said. “We’ll just have to see how this all plays out in the next weeks.”
Mueller said that terminology used in the proclamation and subsequent postings was imprecise and “leaves us and clients still guessing a bit” on everything now required.
“Whether this is going to increase demand for our services—certainly right now it is,” Mueller said.
However, Justin Coffey of labor and employment firm Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete said he believed it was “probably too early to say” what the long-term impact on immigration practices will be.
Trump said in his proclamation that the fee is intended to stem “the abuse of the H-1B visa program” that is “allowing employers to hire foreign workers at a significant discount to American workers.” Edlow and the White House later sought to clarify that the increased charges only apply to new petitions filed on and after Sept. 21, 2025.
“The proclamation does not impact the ability of any current visa holder to travel to or from the United States,” Edlow wrote.
Coffey, who is Constangy's immigration practice group co-chair, said clients are still trying to sort through the requirements that the proclamation detailed that caused “chaos and panic” before information in subsequent social media posts and legal guidance tried to clarify parts of the proclamation.
“It was a weekend of a lot of confusion and alarm,” Coffey said.
Mueller said “things are still in flux” after Trump issued the proclamation Friday and Citizenship and Immigration Services and other agencies and officials attempted to clarify details on websites and on social media Saturday and Sunday.
He said “it was all hands on deck” for Ogletree attorneys as they answered calls after Trump’s proclamation implied current H-1B workers had to return to the U.S. by Saturday night or be charged the $100,000 fee—which officials later clarified was not the case.
Shie, leader of Mayer Brown’s global mobility & migration practice, said Monday she had heard from clients with questions about which workers would be affected by the change. She noted that clarifying information about the fee “was provided by way of agency memos and social media posts.”
“You've got the wording, the exact wording of the proclamation, and then you've got these social media posts that say, well, this is what it really means,” she said.
To be eligible for an H-1B visa, a potential employee must be seeking a position that requires at least a bachelor’s degree in the related field for a position. Employers cannot pay the worker less than what’s paid to similar workers or less than the prevailing wage for the geographic area in which the position is based.
If allowed to remain, the new fee is expected to hit the tech industry hardest. The $100,000 fee will be required in addition to the previous fee that could total up to $7,000—including fees for registration and processing costs and legal fees.
Reprinted with permission from the September 23rd edition of The American Lawyer © 2025 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited.
