U.S. Immigration Update: H-1B Fee, End of EAD Auto-Extension, and Delayed October 2026 Visa Bulletin

The October 2026 Visa Bulletin is running late just as several immigration policy changes hit at once — a $100,000 fee on new H-1B petitions, the end of automatic 540-day work permit extensions, and a court freeze on the “duration of status” rule for students.

In short

• The $100,000 H-1B fee is blocked by a court, but the order has been extended through September of next year and will take effect automatically once the block is lifted.
• As of October 30, 2025, the 540-day EAD auto-extension is gone — holders risk a gap in work authorization even if they file on time.
• An expedite request for an EAD can shorten the wait to 7–8 months instead of the usual 10, but that’s still longer than the 6-month filing window before an EAD expires.
• The duration of status rule for students was blocked by a court the day before it took effect — the new I-765 and I-539 forms are temporarily not being accepted.
• The State Department is revoking tourist visas over social media posts — reviews reportedly reach as far back as 15–20 years of activity.

The $100,000 H-1B Fee: What’s Actually in Effect Right Now

The $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas is not being collected right now — a court has blocked enforcement of the executive order that created it. At the same time, the order itself has been extended by another year: it was originally set to run for one year through the end of September, and now it’s been stretched to two years, through September of next year. That creates a paradox — the rule is formally extended but not actually functioning while the court block stands. The moment the injunction is lifted, the fee kicks in automatically, with no new order needed.

The restriction applies specifically to the consular process: the fee is owed when a worker gets their first H-1B visa stamped outside the U.S. There’s one exception — if the position is deemed to serve the national interest, the employer doesn’t have to pay the $100,000.

Scrutiny of the underlying petitions has tightened at the same time. The U.S. Department of Labor has been directed to review every Labor Condition Application (LCA) certified in the past 30 days that’s tied to an H-1B filing. Reviewers are looking at both the worker and the employer — checking whether the employer has recently laid off American staff, is planning to, or is using H-1B hires to replace workers it let go. Employers are barred from cutting American staff and hiring H-1B workers at the same time. The review covers every filing type — new petitions, transfers, extensions, and change-of-status requests.

Employers are barred from cutting American staff and hiring H-1B workers at the same time.

Who’s Under Review

• Staffing agencies that place H-1B workers;
• Employers who rely heavily on the visa;
• Laid-off American workers in comparable roles;
• Candidates being considered as replacements for H-1B holders.

End of the 540-Day EAD Auto-Extension: Who’s Affected and What to Do

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has ended the automatic 540-day extension of work permits (EADs). The change applies to anyone filing a renewal application on or after October 30, 2025.

Under the old rule, an EAD holder could keep working legally for up to 540 days while USCIS processed the renewal. Now, if the renewal isn’t approved by the time the old permit expires, work authorization simply stops — even if the application was filed on time and a decision just hasn’t come through yet.

work authorization simply stops — even if the application was filed on time and a decision just hasn’t come through yet

Processing times make the problem worse: USCIS is taking anywhere from 10 months to a year to process EAD renewals. Applicants are only allowed to file up to 6 months before their current permit expires — meaning the filing window is shorter than the typical wait for a decision. In practice, someone files six months ahead of time and the approval can still fail to arrive before the old permit expires, leaving them unable to work and, in many cases, costing them their job over that gap.

H4 visa holders — spouses of H-1B workers who hold work authorization through the H4 category — have been hit hardest by the change, running into this employment gap more often than other applicants because of the end of auto-extension.

How to Speed Up a Work Permit Application

USCIS accepts expedite requests for work permits on several grounds. One is humanitarian reasons. Working for a nonprofit organization can also count in an applicant’s favor.

A separate ground is financial hardship — for example, a household depends on two incomes and losing one creates real difficulty. Supporting evidence in that case includes copies of bills, lease agreements, bank statements, and pay stubs. Another ground is financial loss to the employer caused by the delay in renewing an employee’s work permit.

There’s no built-in instruction for filing this kind of request within the application itself — there’s a separate guide with a sample and a step-by-step walkthrough of the expedite request process.

How much it actually shortens the wait depends on the individual case. In one reviewed case, an expedite request combined with extra supporting evidence brought a decision in 7–8 months instead of the usual 10. Even with that speed-up, the wait still runs longer than the 6-month window applicants get to file a renewal before their current EAD expires. There’s no clear answer on what share of expedite requests get approved — each case is reviewed individually, and predicting the outcome in advance is difficult.

Immigrant Visa Issuance Resumes at Consulates

The administration suspended immigrant visa issuance for citizens of a number of countries — this happened shortly after the entry ban covering 75 countries was lifted. The restriction doesn’t apply to every applicant at every consulate; it targets a specific list of countries and categories named in the relevant proclamation. At the same time, already-scheduled consular interviews started getting cancelled, and for applicants from geographically large countries who’d had to fly or travel to a city for their interview and book a hotel in advance, the cancellation often came just a day or two before the appointment.

A court struck down the policy that had halted immigrant visa issuance. After that ruling, the government itself asked the court to schedule a hearing so it could explain how it would handle the backlog of pending immigrant visa applications — at that point, the agency didn’t have a clear plan for resuming operations.

Despite the lack of an overall plan, reports of resumed processing are already coming in from individual consulates: interviews are being conducted again in Hungary and Poland, where applications have started moving forward again. There’s no confirmed data yet on other countries. Applicants from Latin America whose September interviews were cancelled received emails saying a new date would be set later — they haven’t been given a specific new date yet.

Tourist Visas Revoked Over Social Media Activity and Other Grounds

The State Department has started revoking tourist visas over social media activity: applicants get a letter saying their recent posts don’t match the stated purpose of a visitor visa, and the visa is cancelled. In one described case, someone spent a week publicly speaking at events and conferences about their work, and got a cancellation letter right after those wrapped up.

Even U.S. citizens and green card holders who hadn’t used their tourist visa in years — in one case, for roughly a decade — have had it revoked. There’s little logic to it: these people no longer need the tourist visa to enter at all, yet it got cancelled anyway.

There’s a separate risk flagged for pregnant applicants: there are known cases where simply entering the U.S. on a tourist visa while pregnant became grounds for visa revocation — even with no intention of giving birth in the country.

simply entering the U.S. on a tourist visa while pregnant became grounds for visa revocation

Monitoring of LinkedIn and other social media posts is presumably being handled by some kind of AI-assisted system — it’s hard to otherwise explain how the agency keeps up with that volume of accounts. There’s no direct confirmation of this, but the scale of the checks points that way. The data being pulled from social media apparently isn’t limited to recent months either: people have been using Facebook for 15–20 years, and there’s no indication authorities are only looking at recent posts. Anyone holding a tourist visa should keep track of everything they post on social media and be careful about the content of those posts.

The Duration of Status Rule for Students Is on Hold

The duration of status rule was set to take effect on September 15 — a separate measure from the “public charge” fee, which took effect on September 18. But on September 14, the day before it was due to take effect, a federal judge in Massachusetts issued an order blocking the duration of status rule while litigation proceeds. Technically the rule is still considered in effect, but it can’t be applied for now — the court has frozen it.

New versions of Form I-765 (work permit application) and Form I-539 (extension/change of status) were tied to this rule: both were supposed to launch on September 15, with old versions rejected after that date. Because of the court order, USCIS posted a notice on its website that same evening: due to the ongoing litigation, the agency is accepting only the old versions of Forms I-765 and I-539, and the new versions are blocked. Anyone who already submitted the new forms on September 15 risks a rejection and a delay in getting work authorization — they’ll have to refile using the old version.

Form I-585 is a separate story. It’s required for people applying for a change of immigration status if the postmark on their application is dated September 18 or later — that is, after the public charge rule took effect. This form isn’t being rejected, because it’s tied to a different rule — public charge, not duration of status. That’s exactly why the old versions of I-765 and I-539 would be rejected now if they were the new versions: they’re directly tied to the frozen duration-of-status rule, while I-585 isn’t.

Students with an approaching priority date are advised to start calling clinics now to check whether they accept the applicant’s health insurance, what an appointment costs, and how long the medical exam takes to complete, and to prepare documents like birth certificates — so they’re ready to file the moment their number becomes current. Given how quickly the rules are shifting, students are advised not to leave the U.S. and try to re-enter — there’s no way to predict what will change while they’re away.

How to Prepare for the October 2026 Visa Bulletin

The forecast for the October Visa Bulletin is built on the trends of recent months: USCIS is likely to keep using Final Action Dates for decisions on employment-based visas — the agency is keeping pace with current filing volume — and Filing Dates for accepting family-based applications.

Noticeable movement is expected in the employment-based categories: thousands of pending applications there still haven’t been processed. Two factors are driving this — pent-up demand created by the 75-country entry ban, and unused family-category visa numbers spilling over into the employment-based categories.

The bulletin itself is typically released on a Friday, later in the day. The exact release date for the October edition isn’t known yet, but based on past releases, the document is usually available within a day or two of the announcement, and at best, sometime before the two-month mark from when the release date was announced.

Anyone whose priority date is close to the current bulletin cutoffs should start preparing now:

1. Update personal information — refresh your application and contact details before your number appears in the bulletin.
2. Contact doctors about the medical exam. The exam itself doesn’t need to happen yet, but it’s worth calling at least three or four doctors to check whether they accept your health insurance, what they charge, and how long paperwork takes.
3. Gather documents that don’t depend on the filing date — birth certificates and other paperwork that can be prepared ahead of time.

If the date becomes current in tomorrow’s bulletin or any bulletin released in October, the applicant will still have to wait until October 1 and file using the new form. The medical exam and gathering birth certificates can happen in parallel with that wait — so by the time the number becomes current, the document package is ready to file immediately.

What to Prepare Before the October Visa Bulletin Comes Out

• Update your application and contact informationrequiredBefore your number appears in the bulletin
• Call 3–4 clinics about the medical examrequiredCheck insurance, pricing, and paperwork turnaround
• Gather birth certificatesrequiredAnd other documents that don’t depend on the filing date
• Don’t take the medical exam yetThe exam itself doesn’t need to happen yet