The $4,500 L-1 Fee Now Applies to Extensions: What Covered Employers Pay Through September 2027

What changed with the L-1 9-11 Biometric Fee?

The 9-11 Response and Biometric Entry-Exit Fee (the “9-11 Biometric Fee”) is a surcharge Congress created in Public Law 114-113 in December 2015. It is $4,000 for H-1B petitions and $4,500 for L-1 petitions, and it funds the biometric entry-exit system run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Only “covered employers” pay it.

From 2016 until this year, DHS applied the fee only where the separate $500 Fraud Prevention and Detection Fee also applied: new L-1 petitions and petitions for a change of employer. A company extending its own transferee’s L-1 status paid neither.

In a final rule published August 10, 2026 (91 FR 51360), DHS said that reading was “not the best one.” The statute raises the fee for an application for admission “including an application for an extension of such status.” The rule took effect September 9, 2026. On October 27, 2026, USCIS Policy Alert PA-2026-16 updated the L-1 fee chapter of the Policy Manual. That guidance applies to petitions postmarked on or after September 9, 2026.

Before and after: which L-1 petitions pay the fee?

On blanket L filings, the rule’s footnote 19 says USCIS already treats each Form I-129S as a change of employer, so those filings already carried the Fraud Fee and the 9-11 fee.

Who is a covered employer?

A covered employer is an H-1B or L-1 petitioner that employs 50 or more people in the United States and has more than 50% of those employees in H-1B, L-1A or L-1B status in the aggregate. The rule writes into regulation a long-standing practice: part-time employees count, both in the headcount and in the 50% test.

In practice, this captures IT staffing and consulting firms and some U.S. subsidiaries of foreign groups that staff mainly through intracompany transfers. A typical multinational with a large U.S. workforce of citizens and permanent residents is not covered, however many L-1 workers it sponsors.

Does the 9-11 fee apply to your L-1 petition?

What does an L-1 extension cost now?

For a covered employer, the USCIS filing fees for one L-1 petition under 8 CFR 106.2 are listed below. Covered employers will rarely qualify as a “small employer” (25 or fewer full-time-equivalent employees), so the table uses the full base fee and the $600 Asylum Program Fee. Nonprofits pay no Asylum Program Fee.

Excludes optional premium processing and attorney fees. PA-2026-16 removed dollar figures from the Policy Manual and points to the USCIS Fee Schedule (G-1055); check it on the day you file. The $4,500 increase on a $1,985 extension is 227%.

Estimate your filing fees

Why did DHS change the rule?

Money. In 2015 the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) expected the 9-11 Biometric Fee to raise about $420 million a year. DHS reports actual collections of $158 million in FY2016, falling to $25.6 million in FY2025. That is about 6% of the original yearly estimate. DHS says it needs the funds for CBP’s biometric entry and exit work, and it largely blames the old reading that let extensions skip the fee.

The H-1B data show what the change does. From FY2018 to FY2025, 27% of H-1B petitions from covered employers paid the fee. Under the new reading, DHS calculates that 75% would have. DHS says it doesn’t keep the same detail for L-1 petitions, so it applied the H-1B ratio of new to existing fee payers (1.8127) to its L-1 projections.

Two things stand out. First, L-1 fee payers fell 85% from FY2018 (5,592) to FY2025 (844), so the group of covered L-1 employers has shrunk sharply. Second, DHS expects the rule to almost triple the number of L-1 petitions that pay the fee, from 883 to 2,483 in FY2026. For H-1B and L-1 together, DHS projects $37.9 million in added fees in FY2026 and $40.0 million in FY2027.

What should employers do now?

1. Run the covered-employer test now. Count every U.S. employee, part-time included, and everyone in H-1B, L-1A or L-1B status. Keep a dated record of the count with each filing.
2. Re-budget upcoming extensions. List every L-1 worker whose stay ends before September 30, 2027 and add $4,500 per petition if you are covered.
3. Check what the petition asks for. An amendment that only reports a change (for example, a new work site) without more time is exempt. If it also extends stay, the fee applies.
4. Review petitions filed since September 9, 2026. If a covered employer filed an extension after that date without the fee, speak with counsel. PA-2026-16 doesn’t describe a process for fixing a missed fee.
5. Watch the September 30, 2027 end date. The regulation stops the fee for petitions filed after that date. Congress moved the date once before (from 2025 to 2027), so confirm the rule before relying on it.

For background on the L-1A classification, see our guide to the L-1A intracompany transferee visa. For the separate H-1B surcharge, see the $100,000 H-1B fee: what employers need to know.