Federal Judge Rules Trump Lacked Authority to Impose $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee

Ololade Adeyanju/

A federal judge in the United States has struck down President Donald Trump’s controversial $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, ruling that the measure amounted to an unlawful tax that the White House had no authority to impose without congressional approval.

US District Judge Leo Sorokin, sitting in Boston, invalidated the policy on Monday, delivering a significant legal setback to one of Trump’s most aggressive immigration measures aimed at reducing the hiring of foreign workers.

The ruling immediately suspends enforcement of the fee nationwide, although the administration is expected to appeal.

Trump introduced the fee through a presidential proclamation in September 2025, dramatically increasing the cost of obtaining an H-1B visa, a programme widely used by technology companies, universities, hospitals and other employers seeking highly skilled foreign workers.

Existing application costs, which generally ran into a few thousand dollars, would have risen sharply under the new policy.

The lawsuit was brought by 20 Democratic state attorneys general led by California, who argued that the fee would make it harder for states, educational institutions and employers to recruit doctors, teachers, researchers and other specialised professionals.

In his 42-page ruling, Sorokin concluded that the fee functioned as a tax rather than a regulatory charge. He found that the US Constitution grants Congress, not the President, the power to impose taxes and that immigration laws did not authorise the White House to introduce such a measure unilaterally.

“The Court finds that the Policy imposes a tax on H-1B petitions without the requisite delegation by Congress,” Sorokin wrote in the ruling.

The decision also relied in part on a recent US Supreme Court ruling that limited presidential authority to impose certain financial measures without explicit approval from Congress.

The H-1B visa programme, established in its current form in 1990, allows US employers to hire foreign professionals in specialised fields such as technology, engineering, healthcare and finance.

The programme issues up to 85,000 new visas annually, including a quota reserved for applicants holding advanced degrees from American universities.

Supporters of Trump’s policy argued that the steep fee would encourage employers to prioritise American workers and reduce dependence on overseas talent.

Government lawyers told the court that the measure was designed to discourage excessive reliance on foreign labour.

Critics, however, warned that the fee would harm innovation, worsen labour shortages in key sectors and undermine America’s ability to attract highly skilled professionals from around the world.

Major technology firms, healthcare providers and universities had expressed concern over the policy’s impact on recruitment.

The ruling creates fresh uncertainty around the future of the policy.

While another federal judge previously upheld the fee in a separate case, Sorokin’s decision blocks its enforcement for now and sets the stage for further legal battles in the appellate courts.

The White House has indicated that it expects the ruling to be overturned on appeal, signalling that the legal fight over one of Trump’s most contentious immigration initiatives is far from over.

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