US Immigration Questions
Unless the context shows otherwise, all answers here were provided by Rajiv and were compiled and reported by our editorial team from comments, blog and community calls on immigration.com. Where transcribed from audio/video, a verbatim transcript is provided. Therefore, it may not conform to the written grammatical or syntactical form. This answer is for information purposes only and does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Proclamation Restricting Entry of H-1B Nonimmigrant Workers: A Legal Analysis of the New $100,000 Payment Requirement
Authored on:On Friday, Sept. 19, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed a Proclamation, "Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers," that took an important, initial, and incremental step to reform the H-1B visa program to curb abuses and protect American workers.
This Proclamation:
- Requires a $100,000 payment to accompany any new H-1B visa petitions submitted after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on Sept. 21, 2025. This includes the 2026 lottery, and any other H-1B petitions submitted after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on Sept. 21, 2025.
- Authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State to coordinate to take all necessary and appropriate action to implement this Proclamation.
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has so far taken such action by issuing guidance regarding the Proclamation, available here (PDF, 177.48 KB).
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection has also issued guidance, available here.
- The Department of State has posted guidance to all consular offices, consistent with the guidance from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and U.S. Customs and Border Protection guidance.
This Proclamation does not:
- Apply to any previously issued H-1B visas, or any petitions submitted prior to 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on Sept. 21, 2025.
- Does not change any payments or fees required to be submitted in connection with any H-1B renewals. The fee is a one-time fee on submission of a new H-1B petition.
- Does not prevent any holder of a current H-1B visa from traveling in and out of the United States.
Further steps that will be taken to reform the H-1B program, as contemplated in the Proclamation, include:
- A rulemaking by the Department of Labor to revise and raise the prevailing wage levels in order to upskill the H-1B program and ensure that it is used to hire only the best of the best temporary foreign workers.
- A rulemaking by the Department of Homeland Security to prioritize high-skilled, high-paid aliens in the H-1B lottery over those at lower wage levels.
Additional reforms are also under consideration and will be announced in the coming months.
Does Unlawful Presence Continue to Accrue While Fighting an NTA?
Authored on:This question is particularly important because continued accrual of unlawful presence during removal proceedings can trigger the three-year or ten-year bars, severely limiting future immigration options.
General Rule: Yes, Unlawful Presence Continues
Once removal proceedings commence (i.e., when the NTA is filed with the immigration court), unlawful presence generally continues to accrue while you are physically present in the United States. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) has consistently held that the three- and ten-year unlawful presence bars under INA S212(a)(9)(B)(i) continue to run while a noncitizen is in removal proceedings.
This can create a particularly harsh situation where individuals are caught in a Catch-22: they often cannot leave the United States while fighting the removal proceedings (as departure could be deemed an abandonment of their case or trigger an automatic removal order), but staying continues to accumulate unlawful presence, potentially leading to more severe bars.
For more details, read the full blog post: Another Problem for Legal Immigration: NTAs (Removals/Deportation Despite Legal Stay.