Second Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee

By Onyx Bugett | TalkLife News
Morning Report — October 1, 2026

OAKLAND, Calif. — A second federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, ruling that immigration agencies did not follow required procedures before putting the charge into effect.

U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam granted a request from unions, employers and nonprofit organizations seeking to stop U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the State Department from enforcing the fee while their lawsuit proceeds.

A dramatic jump in cost

The H-1B program allows American employers to hire foreign professionals in specialty occupations, including technology, engineering, health care and higher education. The program normally provides 65,000 visas annually, plus 20,000 additional visas for workers with advanced degrees earned in the United States.

Before the administration’s order, the typical collection of filing and program fees ranged from roughly $2,000 to $5,000, depending on the employer and application. The $100,000 charge represented an unprecedented increase.

Trump said employers had abused the program to replace American workers with lower-cost labor. The administration relied on presidential authority under immigration law to restrict the entry of foreign nationals considered harmful to U.S. interests.

Why the court intervened

Gilliam’s ruling focused on procedure. The judge found that the agencies failed to complete the rule-making process required before imposing the fee. The decision does not resolve every debate over H-1B policy, nor does it permanently end the administration’s effort to raise costs.

A federal judge in Boston had already blocked the fee in a separate case brought by 20 states. A federal appeals court declined in July to pause that decision.

The Department of Homeland Security is also pursuing a permanent fee of approximately $103,000 through a separate regulatory process. If finalized, that proposal is expected to face its own legal challenges. The legal questions may differ because the administration would be using formal rule-making rather than only a presidential order.

What the ruling means now

The latest order prevents enforcement of the $100,000 fee while the California case moves forward. It does not abolish the H-1B program, and it does not decide whether Congress or federal agencies could lawfully change fees through another process.

The ruling matters to technology firms, universities, hospitals, startups and workers who make employment and relocation plans months in advance. A fee of this size could make sponsorship impossible for smaller employers even when they cannot find a qualified domestic applicant.

Onyx’s perspective: This story should not be reduced to “American workers versus foreign workers.” The immediate question is whether the government followed the law when it changed the price of participation overnight. The broader policy debate should address wages, enforcement, genuine labor shortages and fair treatment for workers on both sides of the system.

Source: Reuters, October 1, 2026.

Featured image: Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and United States Courthouse in Los Angeles. Photo by Alexis Doine via Wikimedia Commons, dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0. Archival courthouse image; no substantive TalkLife News edits.