Starting September 9, 2026, a new federal rule adds a biometric entry-exit fee to certain H-1B and L-1 visa extensions filed in the United States. It is the kind of headline that can sound bigger than it is, so it is worth being precise about who the rule actually reaches. Confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security in a rule published in the Federal Register, the fee runs $4,000 per H-1B extension and $4,500 per L-1 extension, and it only applies to employers with 50 or more US workers where more than half of that workforce already holds H-1B or L-1 status. That description fits a narrow band of large technology and outsourcing firms far more than it fits a hotel group, a restaurant company, or a hospitality management company bringing over one or two specialized hires.
For most hospitality employers, in other words, very little changes on September 9. What is worth a closer look is the L-1 visa itself, a route that has quietly become one of the more dependable ways to move hospitality talent between Italy and the United States, especially with the H-1B program adding its own costs elsewhere, including a separate $100,000 payment now required on many new H-1B petitions filed since September 2025.
What the L-1 Actually Requires
The L-1 exists for companies that already operate on both sides of the Atlantic. It allows a business to transfer a manager, an executive, or an employee with specialized knowledge from a foreign office to a related US parent, subsidiary, branch, or affiliate, as long as that employee worked for the foreign company for at least one continuous year within the three years before the move. Unlike the H-1B, there is no annual cap and no lottery, so a qualifying petition moves on its own timeline rather than a random draw. L-1A status, for managers and executives, can run up to seven years. L-1B status, for employees with specialized knowledge, tops out at five. Neither category was touched by the 2025 H-1B payment, and the new biometric fee applies only to extensions, not new petitions, and only for the narrow set of employers described above.
A Practical Fit for Italian Hospitality Groups
This matters for a specific and increasingly common situation: an Italian hospitality group, a hotel management company, or a restaurant brand with a genuine footprint in both Italy and the United States that wants to move a trained executive chef, a hotel general manager, or a specialist in Italian pastry or wine service to a US property under the same corporate umbrella. That is close to the exact profile the L-1 was built around, and close to the exact profile the H-1B lottery is worst suited to serve. The candidate does not need a job offer that survives a random draw. They need a genuine qualifying relationship between the two companies and a real year of experience inside that organization.
That distinction is part of what we spend our time on at ItalianExperience, quietly, in the background of every placement. Matching a qualified Italian chef or hotel professional with a US employer is only half the work. The other half is helping that employer see which visa route actually fits the hire in front of them, whether that is an L-1 transfer inside an existing corporate structure, an H-2B for a seasonal role, or one of the other pathways we have walked through in past pieces. Getting that choice right early is usually what keeps a strong hire from stalling in paperwork later.
Details on the new biometric fee and its September 2026 effective date are drawn from the Department of Homeland Security's final rule published in the Federal Register, with additional context from employer guidance published by Miller Mayer and Benesch Law.
A cap-free route is not a shortcut. It is the paperwork finally matching how these companies already work.