If you submitted a Round 1 application to a US programme this month partly because you had read that the $100,000 H-1B proclamation was about to lapse on 21 September, you need to know that it did not lapse. On 18 September the White House extended it by a full twelve months, to 21 September 2027, and signed a separate order that adds a layoffs screen to every H-1B adjudication. This post is for Indian applicants now holding a live US application.
What actually changed on 18 September
Two documents, issued the same day. The first is a proclamation extending Proclamation 10973, the September 2025 order that imposed a $100,000 payment requirement on new H-1B petitions filed on or after 21 September 2025. That order carried a twelve-month sunset. Instead of letting it run out, the administration extended it to 12:00 a.m. EDT on 21 September 2027.
The second is an executive order titled Enhancing Program Integrity and Interagency Coordination in the Administration of the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Program, published in the Federal Register on 23 September. It does two things. It requires State, Labor and Homeland Security to coordinate with Commerce, Education and the Small Business Administration when adjudicating H-1B petitions, visa applications and Labor Condition Applications. And it requires those agencies to consider whether the sponsoring employer carried out layoffs in the previous year, or plans layoffs that would affect similarly situated US workers. The Department of Labor has 30 days to start reviewing historical LCA data.
The extension changes less than the headline suggests
Here is the part that most of the Indian coverage has run past. The extension has no immediate practical effect, because the fee is not currently being collected by anyone. A federal district court in Massachusetts vacated the $100,000 charge in June 2026 on the grounds that it was an unlawful tax, and in July the First Circuit declined to let the government keep collecting it while the appeal proceeds. Extending a proclamation that courts have barred agencies from enforcing keeps the legal question alive. It does not put a bill in front of your future employer tomorrow.
So the honest read is this. The extension is a signal about intent through the 2027 hiring season, not a change in what a US employer pays to sponsor you this year. If the appeal goes the government's way at any point before September 2027, the fee has a live legal vehicle waiting for it. That is the risk the extension preserves.
The executive order is the more consequential document, and it is the one nobody is talking about. It does not need a court's permission. It operates inside existing adjudication discretion, so it shapes outcomes quietly, through slower processing and more requests for evidence, rather than through a number on an invoice. That is not speculation; it is the arithmetic of adding reviewers.
If you are an IT services engineer targeting a US M7
This is the profile the layoffs screen was drafted around. The White House fact sheet accompanying the order claims H-1B registrations from the largest IT outsourcing firms have fallen by 92 per cent since the 2025 proclamation took effect. Treat that as the administration's own number, not an audited one, but the direction is not in dispute.
What it means for you practically: the layoffs screen attaches to the employer, not to you. A candidate with a strong profile sponsored by a firm that announced a reduction in force eight months ago now carries that firm's history into the adjudication. When you evaluate post-MBA offers in 2027 and 2028, the sponsoring employer's recent headcount record becomes a diligence item in a way it simply was not two years ago. Ask about it in the offer conversation. It is a fair question now.
If you are choosing between a US programme and a one-year Indian or European option
Do not re-run your school choice on this news alone. Three separate federal actions in the last eight weeks have moved in three different directions, and two of them are stayed by courts. A fourth, the DHS rule ending duration of status for F-1 students, was preliminarily enjoined on 15 September, so F-1 admissions continue on the old indefinite basis for now. Anyone selling you certainty about US policy in September 2028, which is when a 2027 matriculant actually enters the job market, is guessing.
What we tell our own clients has not changed: choose on recruiting strength into your target function, and treat visa policy as a scenario you plan for rather than a variable you forecast. If your entire case for a US MBA rests on H-1B sponsorship working smoothly, the case was fragile before 18 September.
What this means for Indian applicants
Three things worth acting on this week.
First, if you are mid-cycle, this is not a reason to withdraw or to redirect Round 2. It is a reason to add a question to every information session you attend: what proportion of this school's international cohort converted to H-1B in the last two placement years, and with which employers. Schools that track this will tell you. Schools that deflect are telling you something too.
Second, build the employer layoffs question into your career research now, not at offer stage. Our career counselling work with Indian MBA candidates has shifted meaningfully on this point over the last year.
Third, if you are still finalising a school list for the 2027 intake, run it against a genuine sponsorship-risk lens rather than a rankings lens. That is one of the specific things our MBA and MiM admissions engagement covers.
Common questions applicants are asking
Does the $100,000 H-1B fee apply to me right now? No. Courts have barred the agencies from collecting it, and that remains the position while the appeal is pending. The 18 September extension keeps the proclamation alive to September 2027 but does not override the court orders currently blocking enforcement.
Does the fee apply to students moving from F-1 to H-1B? The government has previously clarified that the payment requirement targets new petitions for workers outside the United States, and that F-1 to H-1B change of status is treated differently. Confirm the position with your school's international office at the time you file, because this specific carve-out has been restated more than once and is the detail most likely to move.
Will the layoffs order delay my H-1B? Probably, at the margin. Adding five consulting agencies to an adjudication that previously ran through three does not speed anything up. Plan for longer processing rather than for refusal.
Should I switch to the UK or Europe because of this? Only if the recruiting fit was already close. Switching geography to dodge one policy cycle trades a known risk for an unfamiliar one.
Related reading
- H-1B Visa Fee 2026: Does the $100,000 Charge Still Apply After the September Expiry?
- F-1 duration of status rule blocked in court
- MBA Round 1 deadlines 2026-2027 for Indian applicants
Sources verified 24 September 2026. Next review 15 January 2028. Immigration policy described here was accurate at the time of writing and is subject to active litigation; confirm current status with a licensed immigration attorney before making a decision that depends on it.