US government’s plans for $100,000 fee on new H-1B work visas rejected by court again; says: Government failed to show that …

A federal appeals court has rejected the US government’s proposed fees of $100,000 on new H-1B work visas, saying the government failed to show that it was likely to succeed in proving that President Donald Trump had the authority to impose the charge. The ruling keeps in place a lower court’s decision blocking the fee that was first introduced in 2025 as part of the Trump administration’s broader immigration crackdown. The proposed fee would have sharply increased the cost of hiring highly skilled foreign workers, especially in the technology sector.

US appeals court keeps lower court ruling in place

As stated in a Business Insider report, the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston declined to pause a June ruling by US District Judge Leo Sorokin while the Trump administration appeals the case. The decision means the lower court ruling will remain in effect while the legal challenge continues.In his June decision, Judge Sorokin said the proposed fee was effectively a tax, and under the US Constitution, only Congress has the authority to impose taxes.“Here, the substance and application of the $100,000 payment reveal that it is a tax, regardless of what the payment is called,” Sorokin then wrote.

US introduced $100K H-1B visa fees in 2025

President Trump announced the fee in September 2025, saying the H-1B visa programme had been “deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.”The H-1B programme allows US companies to hire highly skilled foreign professionals in specialised fields such as technology, engineering and healthcare. Each year, the programme issues 65,000 regular H-1B visas, along with 20,000 additional visas for applicants with advanced degrees from US universities.Before the proposed policy, employers typically paid between $2,000 and $5,000 in visa-related fees. According to court filings, demand for new H-1B visas dropped sharply after the administration announced the $100,000 fee. By mid-February, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services had received only a small number of payments under the new policy.