United States Court Rejects Trump Bid to Revive $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee

A US federal appeals court has refused to stay a lower court order striking down the Trump administration's decision to impose a USD 100,000 fee on H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers. 

The three-judge bench at the Boston-based First Circuit Court of Appeals denied the federal government's motion to stay US District Judge Leo T Sorokin's June 8 ruling that struck down the fee, terming it an unlawful tax not authorised by Congress.

"we deny the defendants' motion to stay



pending appeal to this Court, the district court's June 8, 2026, Memorandum and Order and accompanying Judgment," the bench ruled on Friday. 

The judges agreed with the plaintiffs -- 20 Democrat-ruled states -- that "the question here is not whether Congress may delegate the authority in question. It is whether Congress has done so". 

President Donald Trump had issued a proclamation in September last year imposing a USD 100,000 fee for obtaining new H-1B visas.