Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee is ‘unlawful’, US court rules

US District Judge Leo Sorokin made the ruling in a lawsuit filed by 20 Democratic state attorneys general challenging the fee announced by Trump in September.

A US court on Monday declared that the $100,000 fee announced by US President Donald Trump on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers is unlawful and must be invalidated.

US District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston made the ruling in a lawsuit filed by 20 Democratic state attorneys general challenging the fee announced by Trump in September.

Sorokin, during the ruling, argued that the policy exceeded Trump’s authority and would be detrimental in key public sectors, including education and healthcare.

“The court finds that the policy imposes a tax on H-1B petitions without the requisite delegation by Congress,” Sorokin said in the ruling, according to Bloomberg.

The US government said it would appeal the decision, which is a blow for the Trump administration.

The ⁠H-1B visa is granted to 65,000 foreign workers annually, with another 20,000 visas ​for workers with advanced degrees, for a period of three to six years.

Over 70 per cent of approved H-1B visas go to professionals from India. Employers in the US seeking a visa for a foreign worker typically paid about $2,000 to $5,000 in fees.

However, Trump had imposed the hefty $100,000 fee as part of the Republican administration's growing efforts to curb foreign workers from “taking away” domestic jobs and penalising companies hiring international workers.

Several members of the Republican government, including vice president JD Vance, have alleged widespread fraud and abuse in the H-1B visa system.

Why Trump imposed $100,000 on H-1B visa

The $100,000 H-1B visa application fee would make it uneconomical for US companies to hire foreign workers over US-born talent.

The visas are granted for a period of three years and can be renewed for a period of another three years.

The move had made the programme unaffordable for many small-scale employers. As per a recent report, over 200,000 people opted to pay the $100,000 visa fee to receive faster processing of their applications.

While the US Citizenship and Immigration Services received just 85 ‌payments ⁠as ​of February 15.