Update: On June 12, the judge temporarily paused the order vacating the $100,000 H-1B fee until a decision on the government’s anticipated appeal.
The court gave the government until June 18 to file its appeal or the vacate order will be reinstated. For the time being, the $100,000 fee remains in place, with employers advised to closely monitor developments.
A federal judge has ruled Donald Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee unlawful, handing a legal victory to 20 states led by California, suing the President on grounds that the charge damaged their ability to hire workers at public institutions.
US district judge Leo Sorokin said the President had “no power or delegated authority to impose a tax on H-1B petitions”, concluding the fee violated the separation of powers and throwing the policy out in its entirety.
The decision has been hailed a victory for the democratic state attorneys general that filed the suit, as well as tech companies and other US businesses that use the visa to hire skilled international workers and who were rocked by Trump’s dramatic fee hike in September 2025.
Though the administration subsequently said international students transitioning from F-1 to H-1B visas would be exempt from the fee, the eyewatering cost – over 20 times what employers previously paid – has burdened companies, colleges, schools and hospitals with huge additional hiring fees.
The Obama appointee’s 42-page decision ruled in favour of the plaintiffs on all four counts, concluding the fee was operating as an “unlawful tax” implemented without congressional approval.
While marking the most recent setback for the administration’s economic agenda as it seeks to overhaul work and immigration pathways to the US, much remains uncertain and the White House has said it will appeal the decision.
“President Trump has clear legal authority to restrict entry of any class of aliens he determines is not in America’s best interests, and that is exactly what he did,” Taylor Rogers, White House spokesperson, told The PIE News.
“The H-1B program has been abused for decades, and President Trump finally took action to fix it.”
“A federal judge in Washington already upheld a nearly identical order, and the administration is confident this order will be reversed on appeal,” she said.
Rogers’ comments refer to a separate court in Washington DC upholding the fee in January this year, as the judge rejected arguments brought by the Chamber of Commerce that the proclamation exceeded Trump’s statutory authority.
“We continue to surf the waves of what’s coming our way,” said Fragomen immigration partner Eddie Raleigh, highlighting the difficult decision now facing employers about whether to continue paying the fee based on so many unknowns.
Raleigh explained the fee could come back if the district court, the first circuit, or the supreme court suspends the Massachusetts decision while the appeal is pending, or if the decision is later reversed following the appeal.
The administration is confident this order will be reversed on appeal
Taylor Rogers, The White House
He said the DC ruling made an appeal more likely, giving “the government a ready argument that another federal judge looked at the same fee and upheld it”.
And yet, lawyers have highlighted the recent supreme court tariff decision rejecting a broad claim of presidential authority that lacked clear statutory authorisation, supporting the Massachusetts court reasoning that the President cannot impose a $100,000 charge without clear congressional authorisation.
What’s more, Raleigh said the decision gave employers who paid the $100,000 fee a strong argument that the money was collected under an unlawful policy, but the court did not order refunds or create a process for granting them, leaving the issue “unresolved”.
“For now, employers that paid should preserve all payment records, and employers deciding whether to pay should assume that any refund path may be slow and contested,” he advised.
The H-1B program was established in its current form in 1990 and enables US employers to temporarily hire international workers in “specialty occupations” from healthcare to computer science and financial analysis, with California’s tech industry particularly reliant on the stream.
H-1B visas are capped annually at 85,000 with 20,000 reserved for individuals with advanced degrees, though colleges, universities and non-profits are exempt from the cap.
As this year’s H-1B cap filing deadline fast approaches at the end of the month, experts predict many employers will continue paying the fee rather than risk complications and missing the deadline.
India, America’s largest source of international students, is also the top country of origin for H-1B visa holders, with Indian nationals making up 73% of new H-1B approvals in 2023.
Amid the uncertainty over the fee, US homeland security secretary Markwayne Mullin said last week at least 200,000 people have opted to pay the $100,000 H-1B fee to ensure faster processing, while roughly 80,000 applicants seeking an exemption are set to wait in processing queues nearly eight months long.
Trump’s overhaul of the visa route has also included replacing the random lottery system with a weighted selection processing favouring higher wage earners.
A third court challenge, Global Nurse Force v. Trump, is still ongoing in the courts, with the plaintiffs arguing the $100,000 H-1B fee “threatens to choke off the lawful nurse-recruitment pipeline US hospitals depend on”.
Commenting on the policy environment and its trickle-down impact on international students coming the US, International House Berkeley executive director Shaun Carver said global competition for talent was “far more intense than many Americans realise”.
“Policies that create uncertainty around visas or long-term opportunity don’t happen in a vacuum. Talented people increasingly have other options, and we’re seeing that play out across the pipeline – from education through to career choice.”
