Second US judge blocks Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee, in relief for Indian workers

A second US federal judge has blocked the Trump administration's $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, dealing another legal setback to a policy with outsized consequences for Indian professionals.

US District Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland, California, ruled on Wednesday that US Citizenship and Immigration Services and the State Department failed to follow required rule-making procedures before implementing the fee. He granted a request by a coalition of unions, employers and nonprofits — the plaintiffs in Global Nurse Force et al. v. Trump — to block enforcement pending the lawsuit's outcome.

It is the second court order against the fee. A Boston federal judge blocked it in June in a separate case brought by 20 states, and an appeals court declined to pause that decision in July. Separately, the Department of Homeland Security moved in August to adopt a permanent fee of about $103,000, a proposal likely to face its own legal challenge.

The $100,000 fee was originally set to expire on September 21, but President Donald Trump recently extended it for another year. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The ruling matters most for India: people born in India accounted for 283,755 — or 71 per cent — of all H-1B petitions approved in fiscal year 2024, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services data.