Presidential Document2026-19554
Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
September 23, 2026
Signed
September 18, 2026
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 183 (Wednesday, September 23, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 183 (Wednesday, September 23, 2026)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 60497-60500]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-19554]
[[Page 60495]]
Vol. 91
Wednesday,
No. 183
September 23, 2026
Part II
The President
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Proclamation 11069--Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant
Workers
Executive Order 14431--Enhancing Program Integrity and Interagency
Coordination in the Administration of the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa
Program
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 91, No. 183 / Wednesday, September 23, 2026 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 60497]]
Proclamation 11069 of September 18, 2026
Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant
Workers
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
On September 19, 2025, Proclamation 10973 (Restriction
on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers) (2025
Proclamation), was issued to address significant abuses
of the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program. The restrictions
enacted by the 2025 Proclamation have proven to be
highly effective but the underlying conditions
necessitating the restrictions persist. It is therefore
in the interests of the United States to extend the
2025 Proclamation for an additional 12 months, until
12:00 a.m. eastern daylight time on September 21, 2027.
As explained in the 2025 Proclamation, the H-1B
nonimmigrant visa program was created to bring
temporary workers in high-skilled functions into the
United States, but it has been exploited to replace,
not supplement, American workers with lower-paid labor.
Certain employers, including information technology
(IT) staffing and outsourcing firms, have abused the
system to suppress wages and displace American workers,
and this has both harmed the labor market for American
workers while also making it difficult to attract and
retain the most highly skilled temporary workers. IT
staffing and outsourcing firms were found to supply a
large volume of entry-level temporary H-1B workers,
generally at a much lower salary compared to full-time,
traditional workers, and some of these firms later
outsourced IT roles to cheap labor markets overseas.
This has led to a proliferation of lower-paid foreign
labor flooding the American labor market and making it
difficult for American workers and recent graduates,
especially in science, technology, engineering, and
math (STEM) fields, to find employment.
To combat these abuses, the 2025 Proclamation set forth
a restriction on entry of certain H-1B nonimmigrant
workers, except for those petitions that were
accompanied or supplemented by a $100,000 payment,
subject to very limited exceptions. The 2025
Proclamation went into effect on September 21, 2025,
and, since then, the $100,000 payment has been made for
over 700 petitions.
Additionally, the 2025 Proclamation required initiation
of rulemakings by the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) and the Department of Labor (DOL) to address
systemic H-1B program concerns. On December 29, 2025,
DHS published a final rule, titled Weighted Selection
Process for Registrants and Petitioners Seeking to File
Cap-Subject H-1B Petitions, 90 Fed. Reg. 60864 (DHS
final rule), to address the policy goals consistent
with section 4(b) of the 2025 Proclamation. Through
this rule, DHS created and implemented a weighted
selection process that prioritizes the allocation of
visas to higher-skilled and higher-paid aliens to
better protect the wages, working conditions, and job
opportunities for American workers. This policy better
serves the intent of the H-1B statutory scheme,
incentivizes employers to recruit temporary workers for
roles at the highest pay and skill levels, and was in
effect for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 H-1B cap season.
On March 27, 2026, DOL published a notice of proposed
rulemaking, titled Improving Wage Protections for the
Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Foreign
Nationals in the United States, 91 Fed. Reg. 15454,
[[Page 60498]]
to address the policy goals consistent with section
4(a) of the 2025 Proclamation. The DOL's analysis of
labor condition application data found that the average
wage actually paid to H-1B workers, and the prevailing
wage assigned to their positions, both remain well
below the average wage earned by comparable American
workers. The rule, once finalized, will better align
prevailing wage levels with wages paid to similarly
employed and located American workers and will
strengthen overall program integrity. Finally, my
Administration continues to explore other complementary
efforts that would, among other things, reform the H-1B
program and assist with cost-recovery for immigration
program administration.
Since the effective date of the 2025 Proclamation and
subsequent promulgation of the DHS final rule, there
have been several measurable impacts on the H-1B
program, including a significant reduction in H-1B
registrations filed by large IT outsourcing firms, with
the largest IT staffing and outsourcing firms reducing
their combined H-1B registrations from 24,946 to 2,055,
a 92 percent decrease. There has also been a large
reduction in consular processing requests, which are
used to bring workers into the United States, noting a
nearly 97 percent decrease from the FY 2025 to FY 2027
cap seasons. Finally, there has been a positive shift
in FY 2027 H-1B registration and selection data toward
higher-skilled and higher-paid workers, with
registrations for beneficiaries with at least a U.S.
Master's degree rising from 45.1 percent of total
registrants for FY 2026 to 66.1 percent for FY 2027.
Job offers with wages corresponding to the two highest
wage levels accounted for approximately 46.3 percent of
H-1B registration selections while those corresponding
with the lowest wage level accounted for only 17.8
percent. It is reasonable to conclude that the required
$100,000 payment and newly implemented weighted
selection process have had the combined effect of
deterring low-wage and low-skilled recruitment while
increasing access for high-skilled and high-wage
workers, as intended by the 2025 Proclamation.
Although the 2025 Proclamation and subsequent
rulemaking have had the desired effects, the underlying
conditions precipitating their issuance persist and,
without an extension of the 2025 Proclamation, it is
highly likely that progress will halt and program abuse
will resume, undermining American workers and posing a
threat to the labor market that would be detrimental to
the interests of the United States. The 2025
Proclamation highlighted a number of concerns,
including high unemployment rates for recent graduates,
wage suppression, fraud, and national security threats.
Currently, these issues continue to undermine our
economy, with unemployment rates for recent college
graduates standing at 5.7 percent as of June 2026, a
marginal decrease from September 2025, when the rate
was 5.8 percent. Underemployment for recent college
graduates also continues to cause concern, having risen
from 41.8 percent in September 2025 to 42 percent as of
June 2026. Additionally, while DOL is actively in the
process of promulgating a rule to restore integrity to
the prevailing wage system, it will take a significant
amount of time to correct and balance the labor market.
Finally, while fraud and abuse continue to be
identified and investigated, these are ongoing and
pervasive concerns that require a sustained,
comprehensive response reflected in the entry
restriction imposed by the 2025 Proclamation.
A review of the 2025 Proclamation's impacts and other
recent policy changes has shown significant measurable
changes in H-1B filing patterns that demonstrate the
effectiveness of the 2025 Proclamation and a need for
its extension. An extension of the 2025 Proclamation
will continue to protect the economic and national
security interests of the United States, improve labor
market access for American workers and graduates, and
ensure that employers recruit only the most highly-
skilled and essential alien workers when needed in line
with the original intent of the program. As a result,
the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the
Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of Homeland
Security have jointly recommended an extension of the
2025 Proclamation.
[[Page 60499]]
As a result of these reviews and considerations, I have
decided to continue to impose the limitations set forth
in Proclamation 10973 on the entry into the United
States by certain nonimmigrant workers. Accordingly, by
the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Restriction on Entry. (a) Pursuant to
sections 212(f) and 215(a) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (INA) (8 U.S.C. 1182(f) and 1185(a)),
the entry into the United States of aliens as
nonimmigrants to perform services in a specialty
occupation under section 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) of the INA
(8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b)), is restricted, except
for those aliens whose petitions are accompanied or
supplemented by a payment of $100,000--subject to the
exceptions set forth in subsection (c) of this section.
This restriction shall expire, absent extension, 12
months after the effective date of this proclamation,
which shall be 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on
September 21, 2026.
(b) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall
restrict decisions on petitions not accompanied by a
$100,000 payment for H-1B specialty occupation workers
under section 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) of the INA, who are
currently outside the United States, for 12 months
following the effective date of this proclamation as
set forth in subsection (a) of this section.
(c) The restriction imposed pursuant to subsections
(a) and (b) of this section shall not apply to any
individual alien, all aliens working for a company, or
all aliens working in an industry, if the Secretary of
Homeland Security determines, in the Secretary's
discretion, that the hiring of such aliens to be
employed as H-1B specialty occupation workers is in the
national interest and does not pose a threat to the
security or welfare of the United States.
Sec. 2. Compliance. (a) Employers shall, prior to
filing an H-1B petition on behalf of an alien outside
the United States, obtain and retain documentation
showing that the payment described in section 1 of this
proclamation has been made.
(b) The Secretary of State shall verify receipt of
payment of the amount described in section 1 of this
proclamation during the H-1B visa petition process and
shall approve only those visa applications for which
the filing employer has made the payment described in
section 1 of this proclamation.
(c) The Department of State and the Department of
Homeland Security shall coordinate to take all
necessary and appropriate action to implement this
proclamation and to deny entry to the United States to
any H-1B nonimmigrant for whom the prospective employer
has not made the payment described in section 1 of this
proclamation.
Sec. 3. Scope and Implementation of Restriction on
Entry. (a) The restriction on entry pursuant to section
1 of this proclamation shall apply only to aliens who
enter or attempt to enter the United States after the
effective date of this proclamation as set forth in
section 1(a) of this proclamation. This restriction
applies to aliens who must seek admission to the United
States to effectuate the approval of a petition
described in section 1 of this proclamation, including
through consular notification, notification at a port
of entry, pre-flight inspection, or pre-clearance.
(b) No later than 30 days following the completion
of the H-1B lottery that immediately follows this
proclamation, the Secretary of State, the Attorney
General, the Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of
Homeland Security shall jointly submit to the
President, through the Assistant to the President and
Homeland Security Advisor, a recommendation on whether
an additional extension or renewal of the restriction
on entry pursuant to section 1 of this proclamation is
in the interests of the United States.
Sec. 4. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this
proclamation shall be construed to impair or otherwise
affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or
the head thereof; or
[[Page 60500]]
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This proclamation shall be implemented
consistent with applicable law and subject to the
availability of appropriations.
(c) This proclamation is not intended to, and does
not, create any right or benefit, substantive or
procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any
party against the United States, its departments,
agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or
agents, or any other person.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
eighteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
two thousand twenty-six, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and fifty-
first.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 2026-19554
Filed 9-22-26; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3395-F4-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on September 23, 2026.
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