In a major blow to the Donald Trump administration and its plan to make H-1B visa program costlier, a federal judge declared that the $100,000 fee that US President Donald Trump imposed on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers is unlawful and must be invalidated. US District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston issued the ruling in a lawsuit filed by 20 Democratic state attorneys general challenging a fee Trump announced in September that dramatically raised the cost of obtaining H-1B visas. The DHS has not reacted to the ruling but the administration can appeal against the ruling and can also appeal for a stay.Immigration attorney Rahul Reddy said that, as it stands today, an H-1B filing, even if there is a consular process, can be filed without the fees.“The most important part of the judgment is that the court did not treat the $100,000 charge as a normal immigration filing fee. The court said, “the $100,000 payment requirement amounts to a tax, not a penalty.” That distinction matters because taxes are controlled by Congress, not the President,” Reddy said.“Let me say it directly: if the government wants to kill or reshape the H-1B program, it must go to Congress — not sneak in a six-figure wall through a proclamation,” he said.
Here is a timeline of the H-1B visa fee controversy
September 19, 2025
- President Donald Trump signed a presidential proclamation titled “Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers.”
- The proclamation introduced a $100,000 fee for new H-1B petitions, one of the most significant changes ever made to the H-1B program.
September 20, 2025
- USCIS issued implementation guidance explaining how the fee would work.
- The agency clarified that the fee would apply only to certain new H-1B petitions filed after the effective date, not to petitions already approved or filed before the rule took effect.
September 21, 2025
- The $100,000 fee officially took effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time.
- The White House said the fee would accompany new H-1B petitions submitted after that date, including petitions filed under future lottery cycles.
September–October 2025
- Confusion prevailed over whether the fee applied to existing H-1B holders, renewals, extensions, transfers, and overseas travel.
- The White House clarified that: The fee was a one-time petition fee, not an annual charge.
Current H-1B holders were generally unaffected.
Visa renewals and extensions were not the primary target of the measure.
October 20–23, 2025
- USCIS issued further guidance narrowing the scope.
- The agency clarified that the fee primarily applied to:
New H-1B petitions involving consular processing, and
Beneficiaries outside the US without a valid H-1B visa.
Extensions, amendments, and change-of-status petitions generally remained exempt.
March–April 2026
- The FY 2027 H-1B cap season became the first major lottery cycle affected by the new fee structure.
- Employers sponsoring certain new overseas hires faced substantially higher costs.
June 2026
- DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin told lawmakers that more than 200,000 applicants had paid the $100,000 fee during FY 2026.
- He also indicated DHS had authority to grant waivers in limited circumstances.
June 3–8, 2026A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration’s $100,000 H-1B fee was unlawful, striking down the policy.
