A federal judge has struck down the Trump administration's $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa petitions, ruling that the charge amounted to an unauthorized tax that the executive branch had no power to impose without Congress. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, sitting in Boston, voided the surcharge in a decision issued Monday, handing a victory to employers and the high-skilled foreign workers the visa program is designed to attract.
Sorokin found that the fee violated the Administrative Procedure Act and that the Constitution reserves the power to levy taxes to Congress, not the president. "There are no statutory powers authorizing" the administration "to implement a $100,000 tax on H-1B petitions," the judge wrote, concluding that officials had failed to offer a reasonable justification for the substantial charge.
The H-1B program allows U.S. companies to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations, particularly in technology, engineering and medicine. Standard fees for an H-1B petition typically range from roughly $1,700 to $4,500, making the $100,000 surcharge an extraordinary addition that employers said had effectively frozen new hiring of skilled foreign staff.
The challenge was brought by a coalition of 20 states led by California, which argued the fee created severe barriers to recruitment at universities, hospitals and technology firms. The plaintiffs contended the administration had bypassed Congress and the normal rulemaking process in imposing a charge of that magnitude by executive action.
The administration had defended the fee as a measure to protect American workers and safeguard the integrity of the visa program, arguing that the H-1B system "has been deliberately exploited to replace" U.S. workers "with lower-paid labor." Officials framed the surcharge as a way to discourage companies from using foreign hires to undercut domestic wages.
Sorokin's ruling ordered the $100,000 payment requirement voided in its entirety. The decision does not end the legal fight: a separate lawsuit challenging the fee, filed in federal court in San Francisco by religious groups and labor organizations, remains pending, raising the prospect of divergent rulings across multiple appellate circuits.
The H-1B fee was among a series of immigration measures the administration has pursued through executive action, several of which have drawn court challenges. The visa program is heavily used by the technology sector, and industry groups had warned that the surcharge would push hiring and research investment offshore.
An appeal of Monday's ruling is widely expected. For now, the decision restores the prior fee structure for new H-1B petitions, and employers that had paused filings while the surcharge was in effect are expected to resume them while the broader litigation plays out.