US widens $4,000 H-1B extension feeThe US Homeland Security Department will expand existing $4,000 H-1B and $4,500 L-1 fees to qualifying visa extension petitions from September 9. An extension filed by the same employer for the same worker did not attract the fee when the separate fraud-prevention fee was not required. DHS also said demand for H-1B visas had exceeded their annual availability for more than a decade and it did not expect the rule to reduce the overall number of H-1B workers hired. Between fiscal 2018 and 2025, about 27 per cent of H-1B petitions submitted by covered employers attracted the biometric fee. Had the new interpretation been in effect, approximately 75 per cent of their H-1B petitions would have been subject to it.