On June 8, Judge Leo T. Sorokin in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts struck down the Trump administration’s $100,000 fee on the entry of new H-1B visa holders. In the case of California v. Mullin, the judge granted a motion for summary judgment by the plaintiffs, a coalition of 20 states. He declared, “The Policy implementing the Proclamation is declared unlawful and is vacated in its entirety.”
The fee had been announced in Sept. 2025 by a presidential proclamation.
The Judge’s ruling is that the president lacked the power to impose an additional $100,000 payment on H-1B applications because it is a tax, and only Congress has the power to tax.
The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on June 11.
Still, in light of the court’s order vacating the proclamation, employers should be able to proceed without incurring that fee, unless and until the ruling is stayed or overturned.
Two other lawsuits over the $100,000 H-1B fee remain active.
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