UPDATE: Petition approved from outside US without 100K fee ( with unexpired H1B stamp on passport )
This is an update I promised on a few earlier posts regarding H1B petitions filed from outside the US while the beneficiary still had an unexpired H1B visa stamp in their passport.
As of May 10, USCIS has started approving cases without requiring payment of the $100K fee for beneficiaries who were outside the US but still held a valid, unexpired H1B stamp. The receipt dates for both approved cases were from late November 2025 ( both filed with premium processing ), and both were filed with the Nebraska Service Center. One petition was handled by Fragomen and the other by Thomas V. Allen.
How I know this: I filed my own petition from outside the US in October 2025. At the time, there was very little information available about this specific situation involving beneficiaries outside the US with unexpired H1B stamps. A few of us connected through r/h1b and began sharing case details and updates with each other.
Although my own petition was eventually withdrawn by my employer because they were unwilling to wait beyond the six month mark, a couple of the others in the group received approvals earlier this week.
I hope this positive update makes some of your days a little better. Cheers.