Appeals court leaves H-1B visa fee ruling in place amid immigration enforcement push

A federal appeals court has declined to let the Trump administration reinstate a $100,000 fee on certain new H-1B visa petitions while its appeal continues, leaving a lower court's ruling against the fee in effect for now.

How the $100,000 fee began

The fee originated from a presidential proclamation issued in September 2025, which required employers to pay $100,000 when petitioning for certain new H-1B visas involving workers who would need to be approved through consular processing abroad. The administration said the fee was meant to discourage misuse of the program, which allows U.S. employers to temporarily hire foreign workers in specialty occupations. The policy quickly drew legal challenges, including one from a coalition of twenty states led by California, who argued the fee amounted to an unlawful tax that undermined the basic function of the H-1B program.

The legal back-and-forth

In June, a federal judge in Massachusetts agreed, ruling that the fee functioned as a tax that only Congress, not the executive branch, has the authority to impose, and vacated the policy entirely. The fee was briefly reinstated days later when the same court granted a temporary stay while the government appealed. In late July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit denied the government's request to keep the fee in place during the appeal, concluding that officials had not shown they were likely to win on the merits, which lifted the fee for a second time.

The appeals court's ruling addressed only the agency policy that implemented the fee, not the underlying presidential proclamation itself, meaning the administration could in theory attempt to reissue the fee on different legal grounds. A separate challenge to the fee, brought by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups, had earlier succeeded in a Washington, D.C. district court in December, a decision now under its own review at the D.C. Circuit, leaving the two federal appellate courts on differing tracks.

What happens next

The timing of the underlying proclamation is becoming its own factor: by its own terms, the September 2025 order imposes a temporary twelve-month restriction that is due to expire on September 20, 2026, unless the administration extends or reissues it. That leaves employers navigating a narrowing window of legal uncertainty, with the government still able to seek a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court and the merits appeal still pending before the First Circuit. The dispute has unfolded alongside a broader expansion of immigration enforcement this year, including new airport screening practices for travelers with expired immigration status and a wave of state laws, passed in the face of federal legal challenges, that require immigration agents to visibly display identification while on duty.