Some petitioners must now pay the additional fees of $4,000 for H-1B petitions and $4,500 for L-1 (both L-1A and L-1B) petitions. These apply to petitioners (1) who have 50 or more employees in the United States, and (2) if more than 50% of their U.S. employees are working in H-1B or L-1 status. For petitioning employers who meet these criteria, the fees apply to both initial H-1B or L-1 petitions and to petitions to change employers of a nonimmigrant in H-1B or L-1 status. The new fees must be submitted with these requests.

These additional fees were included in The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016 (Public Law 114-113), signed into law on December 18, 2015. USCIS advises petitioners to continue to answer the relevant questions on the Form I-129 (Item Numbers 1.d. and 1.d.1 of Section 1 of the H-1B and H-1B1 Data Collection and Filing Fee Exemption Supplement (Page 19 of Form I-129) and Item Numbers 4.a. and 4.b. of the L Classification Supplement (Page 22 of Form I-129). See the announcement for more details: https://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/new-law-increases-h-1b-and-l-1-petition-fees. For petitions files after January 12, 2016, USCIS may send RFEs if the additional fees were not included. Revisions to the Form I-129 that directly address the new fees are in development.