Communique – September 2025

Greetings from the ISSO!

In this issue:

New Presidential Proclamation Regarding H-1 Fees and Travel

The Proclamation seeks to restrict entry of H-1 nonimmigrants effective Sunday, September 21, 2025, unless they demonstrate proof of a new $100,000 fee payment.

White House FAQs and clarifying guidance from USCIS indicate that the travel restrictions and the new fee announced in the Proclamation only apply to new H-1 petitions filed after September 21, 2025, and should not impact current H-1 employees. A Department of State post about the proclamation implies that USDOS will continue to issue H-1 visas to employees with an USCIS approved H-1 petition submitted prior to September 21, 2025.

Given the confusion surrounding this proclamation and general uncertainty in this challenging political climate, we are encouraging our employees in H-1 status to weigh the increased risks and consider refraining from non-essential international travel.

Further, we are evaluating how this will impact BU H-1B sponsorship moving forward as:

  1. it is unclear whether cap-exempt educational institutions will be required to pay the new fee.
  2. the proclamation may be subject to litigation which could delay implementation.
  3. it is unclear how the government will interpret ‘new petition’ vs. continuation/extension, change of employer, new concurrent employment, amendment or change of employer petitions
  4. it is unclear how the government will approve fee waivers for national interest

While we wait for clarity, we will continue to submit petitions for new and continuing employees based on current procedures and fees and will continue to update our news page as more information becomes available.

Changes to Premium Processing Fee Payments

The federal government will stop accepting and issuing paper checks effective October 28, 2025. To account for the time required to prepare employment-based petitions (i.e. H-1, O-1, etc.), all filing fees for requests submitted to the ISSO after 10/1/2025 will need to be paid via credit card.

We anticipate that this new process will increase the number of petitions that USCIS rejects, as it allows more opportunities for human error (i.e. data entry errors at the USCIS service center, wrong details on form, exceeding per transaction or monthly card limits, etc.) A rejection is not a denial, but rather it means that USCIS will not accept the petition to adjudicate and will return it to the petitioner. Given that it can take weeks to know if a petition has been rejected, it is imperative that departments provide significant advance notice so that there is time for the ISSO to re-submit to USCIS. Please speak with your finance team for assistance and to make sure your department is prepared to pay via credit card moving forward. More details and instructions on how to pay via credit card will be available on our premium processing page.

DHS Seeks to Replace D/S with a Fixed Expiration Date

The administration has published a proposed rule impacting J-1 exchange visitors and F-1 employees on OPT and STEM OPT. Under the proposed rule, individuals entering the US in either F or J status would be admitted only until the program end date noted in their Form I-20 or DS-2019, not to exceed 4 years, plus a period of 30 days following their program end date instead of D/S. The proposed rule requires F-1s and J-1s who need extensions or transfers to timely submit a complete extension of stay application to USCIS before their prior admission expires for DHS review and adjudication. You can read about what we know so far on the ISSO’s news page.

This rule could have far reaching impact so the ISSO has been working with several offices on campus to review the proposal and prepare official comments on behalf of the institution and will continue to update the community.

ISSO Scholar Services remains committed to advising and assisting our international scholar community. We appreciate your continued support.