Second Federal Judge Strikes Down Trump's $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee

On September 30, 2026, U.S. District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. of the Northern District of California ruled in Global Nurse Force v. Trump that the administration's $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa petitions was unlawful. Gilliam found the fee was a "legislative rule" that required formal notice-and-comment rulemaking, which the administration skipped when it imposed the charge by presidential proclamation. He vacated and remanded the policy. The plaintiffs included a coalition of churches, unions, hospitals, nurse-staffing companies, charter schools and university groups that rely on H-1B workers.

This is the second time a federal judge has struck down the same $100,000 fee on procedural grounds; a Boston court issued a similar nationwide ruling in June 2026. The repeated losses underscore a pattern across the administration's immigration policy of imposing costly new rules through executive proclamation rather than the standard regulatory process, prompting courts to intervene on procedural grounds without reaching the underlying policy's merits.

The Department of Homeland Security has separately proposed a $103,265 version of the fee through formal rulemaking, which is still pending and already drawing similar objections in public comments. DHS has not said whether it will appeal Gilliam's ruling.