Second US judge blocks Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee

A second US federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump's $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas. US District Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland, California, ruled on 30 September that US Citizenship and Immigration Services and the State Department failed to follow required rule-making procedures before implementing the charge. Gilliam granted a request from a coalition of unions, employers and nonprofits to block the fee while their lawsuit proceeds.

The fee was first blocked in June by a federal judge in Boston in a separate case brought by 20 states, a ruling a Boston appeals court upheld in July. The White House extended the $100,000 fee, which was set to expire on 21 September, through September 2027. Separately, the Department of Homeland Security has proposed making a roughly $103,000 fee permanent through formal rule-making. The US Chamber of Commerce has filed a third lawsuit challenging the fee. For Indian professionals, who account for about 71% of H-1B approvals, the rulings leave the future cost of new visas uncertain.

Update, 3 October 2026: Hindustan Times reports that Judge Gilliam also blocked the fee's extension issued in September 2026. The outlet adds that the ruling bars USCIS and Customs and Border Protection from enforcing the charge until notice-and-comment rulemaking is completed. Hindustan Times also notes that the separate lawsuit by the US Chamber of Commerce remains pending before the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.