Federal Judge Strikes Down Trump’s $100,000 Fee on H-1B Visa Applications

A federal judge has struck down President Donald Trump’s $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications, ruling that the charge cannot be enforced and giving a major reprieve to U.S. companies that depend on skilled foreign workers, according to Bloomberg and Business Insider. The decision reverses a policy that would have sharply raised the cost of hiring workers under the high-skilled visa program.

The ruling is a setback for the Trump administration’s effort to use immigration policy to push employers to hire more American workers. According to Reuters’ reporting on the related court fight, the administration argued that the fee was justified under the president’s authority to restrict foreign nationals deemed harmful to U.S. interests, while business groups said it conflicted with federal immigration law and would make the visa program effectively unusable.

The H-1B program is widely used by technology companies, hospitals, universities and other employers seeking workers in specialized fields. Bloomberg reported that the fee would have been especially significant for U.S. tech firms, many of which rely on the program to recruit engineers and other highly skilled employees from abroad.

The court action follows intense pushback from business groups, especially the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which had challenged the fee in court. In the earlier case reported by Reuters, a federal judge in Washington rejected that challenge, saying the fee fell within the government’s broad immigration powers. The newer ruling, however, blocks the policy, showing that the legal fight over Trump’s H-1B plan has continued to move through the courts with different outcomes.

For employers and foreign workers, the decision matters because the H-1B system has long been one of the main legal pathways for U.S. companies to fill specialized jobs. A $100,000 fee would have been far above the usual costs associated with H-1B petitions, which Reuters said typically run in the low thousands of dollars, and critics warned it could have reduced hiring, delayed projects and limited access to talent.

What happens next will likely depend on whether the Trump administration appeals or seeks another legal route to preserve the fee. For now, according to Bloomberg, the ruling removes an immediate financial barrier for companies that had been preparing for a much more expensive H-1B process.