Appeals court rejects Trump bid to reinstate H-1B visa fee

The H-1B visa fee proposed by former President Donald Trump faced another setback after a federal appeals court declined to revive it. The ruling keeps a lower court decision in place that blocked the H-1B visa fee of $100,000 on new work visas.

The Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday refused to pause a district court order that halted the fee while the administration appeals. A three-judge panel concluded the government had not shown a likelihood of success on its argument that the president had authority to impose the charge, according to the decision.

H-1B visa fee deemed a tax

The appeals court’s action leaves standing a June ruling by US District Judge Leo Sorokin, who found the payment functioned as a tax. Sorokin wrote that its substance and application showed it was a tax regardless of how it was labeled, and therefore fell within Congress’s power to authorize rather than the president’s.

Trump announced the fee in September 2025 as part of a broader immigration crackdown. At the time, he said the H-1B program “has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.”

Brian Hunt, an immigration policy compliance lawyer with Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP, said the immediate impact of the ruling is uncertain because most US employers sponsor H-1B workers who are already in the country. “In light of the 100k fee, there are some workers who were about to lose their job offer but can now get a visa after all,” Hunt said.

Program usage and fee effects on technology companies

The H-1B program issues about 65,000 visas each year, with an additional 20,000 for workers holding advanced degrees. It is widely used by technology companies to recruit overseas talent. Prior to the policy, employers typically paid between roughly $2,000 and $5,000 in visa-related fees.

Court filings indicate the sharp increase curtailed demand. By mid-February, US Citizenship and Immigration Services had received few payments of the new fee.

The challenge to the fee was brought by 20 Democratic state attorneys general. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and technology giants such as Alphabet, which rely on high-skilled visa programs, have not publicly detailed the potential impact as they report results like quarterly profit hits $112.1B on investment gains.