A federal appeals court rejects Trump's bid to keep in place the $100,000 H-1B visa fee

Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee was blocked by the Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals.Andrew Harnik/Getty ImagesTrump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee was blocked by a federal appeals court.A lower court ruled the H-1B visa fee is a tax requiring Congress's approval, not the president's.

Very few had paid the new fee as employer demand for the visa reduced dramatically.President Donald Trump's plans for H-1B visas are running into legal roadblocks.A federal appeals court on Friday refused to revive Trump's $100,000 fee on new H-1B work visas, dealing another setback to the administration's effort to dramatically raise the cost of hiring highly skilled foreign workers.

The Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals declined to pause a lower court ruling that blocked the fee while the administration appeals. A three-judge panel said the government failed to show it was likely to succeed in arguing that the president had the authority to impose the charge.The decision leaves in place a June ruling by US District Judge Leo Sorokin, who said the fee amounted to a tax, which falls under Congress's authority to authorize, rather than the president's."

Here, the substance and application of the $100,000 payment reveal that it is a tax, regardless of what the payment is called," Sorokin wrote.Trump announced the fee in September 2025 as part of a broader immigration crackdown, stating at the time 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, told Business Insider that it's unclear how many people this court decision will affect, because most US employers hire H-1B workers who are already in the US."

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.The H-1B program issues around 65,000 visas each year, pl