President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday (August 24, 2026) released a proposed regulation to codify an unprecedented fee of more than $100,000 on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers. Mr.
Trump first imposed this last year but was blocked by the courts.
A federal judge in June ruled that the fee was illegal and blocked the Trump administration from collecting it. A Boston-based appeals court is reviewing that decision while a different court considers whether a judge in Washington, D.C. properly rejected a challenge to the fee by a major business group.
Mr. Trump, a Republican, and other critics of the H-1B program say it is abused by many companies that replace American workers with cheaper foreign labour. In imposing the fee, Mr. Trump invoked the President’s power under federal immigration law to restrict the entry of certain foreign nationals who would be detrimental to U.S. interests. The fee is being challenged by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest U.S. business lobbying group, Democratic-led States, and a coalition of unions and employers. Those lawsuits could be amended to challenge the rule proposed this week once it is finalised. The lawsuits claim that Trump’s power to restrict entry does not allow him to override the law that created the H-1B visa program. The States and groups that sued also say that the Department of Homeland Security cannot impose fees, taxes, or other means to generate revenue for the United States without permission from Congress. The Trump administration has maintained that the fee is not a traditional tax and that courts have little power to question the President’s authority to restrict entry into the country. Amid Mr. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
About 70 employers had paid the $100,000 fee on a total of 85 visa applications as of late February, according to court filings. Trump’s broader immigration crackdown, employers last year registered for about 344,000 H-1B visas, down more than 25% from 2024 and fewer than half of the 794,000 visas sought in 2023, according to data from U.S.
But business groups and many individual companies have said the visa program is needed to address a lack of qualified American workers for some jobs and to allow U.S. businesses to recruit top talent.
