A federal judge on Monday struck down the $100,000 fee for new H-1B visas, ruling that President Donald Trump didn’t have the authority to impose a tax on the visa program for highly skilled workers.
Trump issued a proclamation in September imposing the fee on new petitions for H-1B visas, stirring concern among higher education experts that the policy would hamper research and teaching at U.S. colleges.
The federal H-1B visa program allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers for specialized jobs, typically for up to six years with an extension. Many high-profile universities rely on the H-1B visa program to recruit foreign scholars and faculty. Stanford University, the University of Michigan and the University of Florida each received over 100 H-1B visa approvals in fiscal 2026.
To defend the fee policy, the Trump administration has invoked the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the president to impose restrictions on noncitizens entering the U.S. Federal officials argued in court documents that the fee was a “regulatory payment” authorized by the statute.
However, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin vacated the policy and declared it unlawful.
“The substance and application of the $100,000 payment reveal that it is a tax, regardless of what the payment is called,” Sorokin said.
The power to levy federal taxes lies with Congress, and the legislative branch did not delegate that authority to Trump in this case, he said.
“President Trump has clear legal authority to restrict entry of any class of aliens he determines is not in America’s best interests, and that is exactly what he did,” Taylor Rogers, a White House spokesperson, said in an emailed statement Monday. “The Administration is confident this order will be reversed on appeal.”
The fee had dramatically increased the cost of new H-1B petitions, which typically ran between $2,000 and $5,000 before the policy, according to the American Immigration Council. All colleges, regardless of size, didn’t want to pay the fee, Joshua Wildes, associate attorney at immigration law firm Wildes & Weinberg, told Higher Ed Dive last year.
“The smaller ones that don’t have the funds, they simply cannot afford it. The bigger ones that do have the funds, they don’t want to do it, because it’s a lot of money,” he said.
Indeed, few employers paid the fee. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services received only 85 $100,000 payments for the new fee through mid-February, according to court filings.
Sorokin’s ruling marks a victory for the 20 Democratic attorneys general who filed a lawsuit over the fee. Their lawsuit was one of at least three brought against the $100,000 fee.
In another legal challenge brought by the Association of American Universities and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a federal judge ruled in December that Trump didn’t overstep his authority when imposing the fee. The groups appealed the decision later that month.
The other case — brought by a coalition of unions and industry groups, including the American Association of University Professors — is also ongoing.
Some state officials adopted hard-line stances against the H-1B visa program following Trump’s proclamation. Earlier this year, Florida’s public university system paused hiring new employees under the program through Jan. 5, 2027. Likewise, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered a similar pause on H-1B hiring at public colleges in his state through May 2027.