Lower court ruled fee an unlawful tax Congress never authorized
The First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston on Friday denied the Trump administration’s request to allow a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas to remain in effect while the administration appeals a June ruling that struck the policy down. The three-judge panel concluded that the government “failed to show it was likely on appeal to succeed in showing it had not exceeded its authority by imposing the fee.”
A lower court judge in June ruled that the fee exceeded the scope of the executive order program that created it and constituted an unlawful tax that Congress never authorized. The fee raised the cost of H-1B visa applications from roughly $2,000 to $100,000.
Trump established the fee through a September 2025 proclamation, arguing that the H-1B program “has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.” A coalition of 20 Democratic-led states sued to block the fee, arguing it constituted an unauthorized tax.
The H-1B program makes 65,000 visas available annually, with an additional 20,000 reserved for workers with advanced degrees. The fee did not apply to foreign citizens already in the U.S. on student visas, who generally represent a large share of new H-1B recipients. Few employers have paid the fee since it was instituted.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The administration can continue its appeal of the lower court’s ruling before the First Circuit.