The US court has given the go-ahead to Trump’s $100,000 H-1B petition fee. A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration can implement a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications. The US Chamber of Commerce and the Association of American Universities were the plaintiffs in the case. They argued that either Congress must have directly legislated the fees (as it has for many fees applicable to H-1B petitions) or Congress must have explicitly delegated that authority to the Executive, while imposing limitations on the delegated authority.
The Verdict
US District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that President Donald Trump’s decision to significantly raise the cost of the H-1B visa by imposing $100k fee is legal.
The Judge said, “Congress has granted the President broad statutory authority, which he has used to issue the Proclamation addressing, in the manner he sees fit, a problem he perceives to be a matter of economic and national security. The Proclamation and its implementation are lawful and therefore withstand plaintiffs’ challenges as ultra vires and violative of the APA.”
Plaintiffs’ Arguments
The Judge acknowledged that Plaintiffs’ arguments have some force that the Proclamation’s imposition of a $100,000 payment for processing new H-1B visas would inflict significant harm on American businesses and institutions of higher education, which would be forced to either dramatically increase their labor costs or hire fewer highly skilled employees for whom domestic replacements are not readily available, and that the Proclamation has ignored that these harms to American businesses and higher education will also be a boon to America’s economic rivals, who will surely welcome the talent no longer able to accept work in the United States.
But, regardless of the force of plaintiffs’ arguments and concerns, the relevant analysis focuses on constitutional and statutory powers, not economic policy, noted the judge.
Ultimately, President Trump was found not to have exceeded his authority by imposing a $100,000 fee on new H-1B workers hired from outside the US, marking a significant win for the administration’s claims to broad powers to restrict entry to the US.
Trump imposed the $100k H-1B fee via a September 19 proclamation, to be paid by all US employers on filing petitions on or after September 21.
Incidentally, the new wage-based selection process has been announced by DHS. The 2027 H-1B season will see two sets of changes — a $100k petition fee and selection of H-1B visas based on higher skill and wages offered to foreign workers.
