Judge blocks Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee, appeal follows

Business planning around skilled foreign workers has been thrown into limbo by the fight over Donald Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee. Companies that depend on engineers, doctors and researchers have had to rewrite budgets, delay recruitment decisions and hedge against a policy that changed shape almost as quickly as it was announced.

Trump signed the proclamation on September 19, 2025, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said the new charge would apply to petitions filed at or after 12:01 a.m. EDT on September 21, 2025, including the 2026 lottery. The White House said the move was meant to curb abuses in the program and steer employers toward higher-skilled, higher-paid workers. Later guidance from USCIS and the State Department said the fee was a one-time charge on new petitions and did not apply to current H-1B holders traveling in and out of the United States or to renewals.

The legal landscape shifted again on June 8, 2026, when U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston vacated the fee in a lawsuit brought by 20 Democratic state attorneys general. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a notice to appeal, and Bloomberg Law reported that Sorokin partly paused his own order while the government sought an emergency stay. The result has been more uncertainty for employers trying to decide whether to proceed with filings, hold openings open longer, or abandon recruitment plans altogether.

That uncertainty has already altered behavior. CNBC reported that companies including Walmart paused their participation in the H-1B program after the proclamation. The stakes are highest in sectors built around specialized foreign talent, especially technology, hospitals and universities, where hiring cycles are tight and visa processing can shape headcount months in advance. When the cost of one petition jumps to $100,000, even temporary confusion can freeze hiring pipelines and force managers to choose between delayed starts and empty roles.

The broader impact reaches well beyond corporate HR departments. More than 70% of H-1B visa holders in 2024 were Indian, underscoring how deeply the policy affects Indian professionals and the U.S. employers that recruit them. As the appeal moves forward, the fee’s fate will help determine whether the H-1B program remains a stable channel for global talent or a moving target that makes American employers less competitive.