The $4,500 L-1 Fee Now Applies to Extensions Too: What Changed on September 9, 2026

As of September 9, 2026, the $4,500 biometric Section 911 fee for L-1 petitions no longer applies only to initial filings and change-of-employer petitions — it now also covers extensions, a rule USCIS formally wrote into its Policy Manual on October 27, 2026.

In short

• As of September 9, 2026, the Section 911 fee for L-1 applies to extensions of status too, not just initial petitions and employer changes.
• Only employers with 50+ US employees, where more than half hold H-1B or L-1 status, owe the fee.
• An amended petition that doesn’t request an extension of status is exempt from the Section 911 fee.
• OMB approved the PERM overhaul proposal on October 23, but specific rules haven’t been published yet — current rules remain unchanged for now.
• Employers who used E-Verify in 2016 or earlier need to download archived records by January 8, 2027 — USCIS plans to delete them after that.

The Section 911 Fee for L-1: What Changed on September 9, 2026

According to available reporting, the change to the Section 911 fee for L-1 petitions took effect on September 9, 2026. Legal commentators note that USCIS published guidance explaining the change later — on October 27, 2026 — updating the Policy Manual to reflect a rule that had already been in effect since September.

Before this change, the Section 911 fee — a biometric fee paid by L-1 petitioners — applied only to initial petitions and to petitions involving a change of employer. The updated USCIS guidance extended the fee obligation to extensions of status as well: companies filing an L-1 extension petition must now pay this fee too, whereas extensions were previously exempt.

Who Has to Pay the Fee: The 50-Employee Test

The fee applies to employers with at least 50 employees in the United States, where more than half of those employees hold H-1B or L-1 status. If both conditions aren’t met at the same time — neither the headcount threshold nor the employee ratio — the petition isn’t subject to the fee.

According to available information, the headcount of 50 employees counts both full-time and part-time workers — the rule doesn’t mention a specific carve-out based on employment type. For an HR department, this means the staff count against both criteria needs to be recalculated with an attorney before filing an extension petition, rather than relying on last year’s numbers.

The Fee Amount and Which L-1 Petition Types It Now Covers

The fee amount itself hasn’t changed: $4,500 per L-1 petition and $4,000 per H-1B petition. What changed is which petition types it applies to.

Previously, the fee was due only when filing an initial petition or a change-of-employer petition. Extensions have now been added to that list: where an extension could previously be filed without this payment, employers now need to budget for it just like an initial filing.

The exception is an amended petition that doesn’t request an extension of status. It falls outside the new requirement and is exempt from the fee: amending a petition’s terms without extending the employee’s period of stay doesn’t trigger the payment on its own.

The exception is an amended petition that doesn’t request an extension of status.

For an HR department, this means the fee amount from a company’s previous filing can’t be carried over by default. The petition type, and whether it requests an extension, should be checked before filing together with an attorney — that’s what determines whether the fee obligation applies at all.

DOL’s PERM Overhaul: What’s Confirmed and What’s Still Rumor

The US Department of Labor, according to reports from the legal community, is preparing a proposal under the working title “Modernizing the Labor Market Test and Improving Protections for US Workers in the PERM Immigrant Visa Program” — an overhaul of the PERM process, the labor certification that a large share of employer-sponsored green card petitions must go through. PERM requires an employer to test the labor market and meet requirements designed to protect US workers.

According to available information, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) completed its review of this proposal on October 23. That moves the document further along the regulatory process, but it doesn’t by itself make the proposed changes effective — until the specific rules are published, current PERM requirements remain unchanged.

DOL’s published description names several priorities for the overhaul: updating recruitment standards, strengthening protections for workers affected by layoffs, and improving compliance with anti-discrimination and recordkeeping requirements. The department notes that PERM regulations haven’t had a comprehensive review since 2004, and recruitment practices and technology have changed substantially since then.

That is the confirmed scope of the overhaul. Everything else being discussed in the legal community is unconfirmed speculation: the exact content will only be known once the text of the proposed rule is published.

Among the speculation: dropping newspaper advertising in favor of electronic recruitment — employer websites, online job boards, social media, and other channels. There’s also talk of broader reach requirements, more detailed job posting content requirements, and revised recruitment windows for HR and global mobility teams. Open questions remain: which recruitment methods will be considered acceptable, what a job posting must contain, how requirements will apply to remote positions, and how longer recruitment periods will affect sponsorship timelines.

How the PERM Overhaul Could Affect Layoffs

A second topic expected to appear in the future PERM rule is protection for workers affected by layoffs. DOL has explicitly named strengthening protections for US workers affected by layoffs as one of the goals of the PERM review. There’s discussion of a possible restriction on filing PERM after layoffs in the same or a similar occupation within the preceding 180 days — but this remains speculation, not an adopted rule.

There’s discussion of a possible restriction on filing PERM after layoffs in the same or a similar occupation within the preceding 180 days — but this remains speculation, not an adopted rule.

There’s also talk of extending notification and consideration obligations toward workers beyond the PERM filing date — potentially through the I-140 petition stage — and of requiring employers to proactively report layoffs to government agencies. How exactly this would work, and whether exceptions would exist, is unknown: the text of the rule doesn’t exist yet.

A third area of discussion concerns employer accountability. The official description of the upcoming rule states that anti-discrimination and recordkeeping requirements will be strengthened. Among the ideas being discussed, but not confirmed: expanded notice requirements, clearer obligations for employers and their representatives, stricter recruitment certification, expanded investigative authority, and broader or longer debarment consequences. According to some sources, consequences could extend to attorneys and agents as well — this is also unconfirmed.

Until the proposal is published, HR teams are advised to keep operating under current requirements: the fact that the rule has cleared OMB review is not, by itself, a reason to change job postings, pause sponsorship, or assume that already-pending cases will fall under different rules. That said, it’s worth checking in advance whether the company can justify its job requirements and show how candidates were evaluated, and whether recruitment records match the position intended for sponsorship. It’s also worth revisiting recruitment timelines, the status of remote positions, layoff practices, staffing arrangements, and the quality of the document archive kept for PERM purposes.

Immigration sponsorship and workforce reductions call for coordinated review: HR, global mobility, recruiting, business leaders, and immigration attorneys need to communicate at every stage of the PERM process — before decisions are made that become difficult to unwind.

E-Verify Historical Records Deadline: January 8, 2027

Employers who used E-Verify in 2016 or earlier have, according to available information, been given until January 8, 2027 — that’s how much time remains to download a report containing historical case records last updated on or before December 31, 2016. After that date, USCIS, per the same information, plans to delete the records — the agency has named January 11, 2027 as the date.

At first glance, a decade-old verification might seem irrelevant to HR. In practice, that’s not the case: an employee verified through E-Verify back in 2016 may still be employed at the company today, and HR may need documentation proving the check was completed. Once the records are deleted, they can no longer be retrieved from the government system.

Once the records are deleted, they can no longer be retrieved from the government system.

Practical steps to take:

• Assign someone responsible for downloading the report;
• Confirm access to the relevant E-Verify accounts, including accounts tied to closed divisions and former administrators;
• If E-Verify is managed by a third-party vendor, find out in advance who will download and retain the data;
• Download the report now and store it together with I-9 forms;
• Make sure the records in the report can be matched to specific employees;
• Check that each employee’s file contains an E-Verify case number or an attached details page — while the old records are still available, this is a convenient time to find gaps.

USCIS deleting its archive does not remove the company’s own obligation to retain I-9 forms — that requirement operates independently of the E-Verify deadline. There’s also no need to re-run E-Verify checks for current employees just because their old cases are being deleted: there’s no such requirement.

It’s worth setting an internal deadline with a buffer, well ahead of January 8, to avoid running into access problems at the last minute. Employers in general should be prepared for any government I-9 audit.

What to Do With Archived E-Verify Records Before January 8, 2027

• Assign someone responsible for downloading the reportrequired
• Confirm access to the relevant E-Verify accountsrequiredIncluding accounts tied to closed divisions and former administrators
• Check with your third-party vendor who will download and retain the dataIf E-Verify is managed by an outside provider
• Download the report and store it together with I-9 formsrequired
• Match the records in the report to specific employeesrequired
• Check that each employee’s file contains an E-Verify case numberrequiredOr an attached details page
• Set an internal deadline with a buffer ahead of January 8

How Long to Keep Form I-9 After an Employee Leaves

After an employee’s employment ends, Form I-9 generally must be retained until the later of two dates: 3 years from the date of hire or 1 year from the date of termination. This rule applies regardless of which records USCIS deletes from its own system — the deletion doesn’t change the employer’s retention obligation. If litigation involving the employee is pending, the retention period can be longer: document preservation obligations tied to the specific proceeding apply.

Deletion of historical E-Verify records is a separate process that doesn’t require re-running verification for employees who are still employed. The fact that an employee’s archived case disappears from the system after January 8, 2027 is not a reason to re-run E-Verify: the obligation to retain the I-9 form itself is unrelated to that deadline.

Frequently asked questions

What should a company do if it already filed an L-1 extension before without paying the fee?

The fee amount from a previous filing can’t be carried over by default: extensions used to be exempt, but that’s no longer the case. Before each new extension filing, a company needs to check with an attorney whether the petition is subject to the fee and at what amount, rather than assuming the previous treatment still applies.

Does the headcount need to be recalculated before every L-1 extension filing?

Yes: before filing an extension petition, staffing numbers need to be recalculated with an attorney against both criteria — the 50-employee headcount and the share of employees in H-1B or L-1 status — rather than relying on last year’s figures, since the ratio may have changed.

How long does Form I-9 need to be kept if the employee is still with the company?

While the employee is still employed, Form I-9 is retained for the entire duration of their employment — the 3-years-from-hire or 1-year-from-termination timeframes only start to apply once the employee has left, and are calculated from whichever of those two dates comes later.

Does the Section 911 fee apply to H-1B the same way it applies to L-1?

The $4,000 fee also exists for H-1B petitions, but the rule extending the fee obligation to extensions, as described for L-1, is specifically tied to L-1 petitions — there’s no information confirming the same change for H-1B extensions.