On October 27, 2026, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a policy alert (PA-2026-16) announcing the extension of a fee initially imposed only on certain L-1A and L-1B petitions to “all L-1 petitions filed by covered employers postmarked on or before September 30, 2027, unless the petitioner is filing an amended petition that does not seek an extension” of the worker’s currently authorized L-1 status. “The rule also codifies longstanding practice applying the fee to petitioners with 50 or more employees if 50 percent or more of those employees are in H-1B or L-1 status in the aggregate, including part-time and full-time employees,” the memorandum states.
The update removes references to specific fee amounts, referring instead to the Fee Schedule, which lists all of the fees petitioners must pay when filing a Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker (Form I-129) for an L-1 beneficiary.
