Filing Locations and Fees

International Services will file all H-1B petitions with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s California Service Center. In cases where an individual is changing to H-1B status from another nonimmigrant classification or requesting an extension of H-1B authorization, a duplicate copy of the H-1B petition and accompanying documentation will be included with the original H-1B package submitted to USCIS.

After the petition is approved, USCIS will forward the duplicate file to the U.S. Department of State’s Kentucky Consular Center. The Kentucky Consular Center will enter the approval notice online into a database known as the Petition Information Management System (PIMS).

If the employee departs the Unites States and has to apply for an H-1B visa stamp at a U.S. consulate abroad, the consular official can go online to the PIMS database and confirm that the employee’s change of status or extension of stay has been approved.

Filing fees

The basic fee for filing an initial H-1B petition is $460. An additional one-time $500 fee, referred to as the “fraud prevention and detection fee,” is assessed for the initial filing of the petition. Both of these fees ($460 + $500) must be paid by the sponsoring department. Checks should be made out to the Department of Homeland Security.

Since USCIS requires that these fees be submitted as two separate checks, departments should submit a separate purchase requisition to the Accounting Department for each of the fees.

The filing fee for H-1B extension requests is $460. No other fees are required for extensions.