- U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland has blocked Trump's $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, ruling USCIS and the State Department skipped legally required rule-making steps.
- It is the fee's second courtroom defeat: a Boston judge blocked it in June in a 20-states case, and an appeals court refused to pause that block in July.
- The fee — up from the usual $2,000–$5,000 — was set to expire September 21, but Trump extended it for another year.
- Tech employers get breathing room, but the fee is still being fought in court.
Just as companies were bracing for a $100,000 price tag on every new skilled-worker visa, a federal judge in California hit pause — and told the administration it skipped the legal homework first.
What happened
U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam, sitting in Oakland, granted a request by a coalition of unions, employers, and nonprofits to stop U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the State Department from implementing Trump's $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas. The block lasts pending the outcome of the lawsuit the coalition filed in October.
Gilliam — appointed by President Barack Obama — ruled the agencies failed to follow necessary rule-making processes before imposing the fee. In plain terms: the administration tried to levy one of the steepest immigration fees in American history without taking the legal steps the law requires. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Latest verified facts
This is not the fee's first defeat. A federal judge in Boston temporarily blocked it in June, in a separate case brought by 20 states — and a Boston-based appeals court in July declined to pause that decision.
The Department of Homeland Security moved in August to adopt a permanent fee of about $103,000 — but that effort will likely face its own court challenge on different legal grounds.
The $100,000 fee was originally set to expire September 21. Trump recently extended it for another year. And the business lobby is fighting on a third front: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has filed its own lawsuit and is appealing a judge's rejection of its claim that Trump had no authority to impose the fee.
Democracy Forward, the group representing the California plaintiffs, celebrated. "Today's decision ... protects a system that was thrown into chaos overnight," said lawyer Steve Bressler.
Why it matters
The H-1B program is the backbone of skilled immigration to the United States: 65,000 visas a year, plus 20,000 more for workers with advanced degrees, typically approved for three to six years. Technology companies in particular rely heavily on it.
Until now, an H-1B came with roughly $2,000 to $5,000 in fees. A $100,000 fee does not just raise the price — it rewrites who can play. Giants like Google and Microsoft could absorb it; startups, hospitals, and universities could not. Trump imposed the fee by invoking presidential power to restrict entry deemed detrimental to U.S. interests, arguing businesses had abused the program to replace American workers with cheaper foreign labor.
Separately, the administration has ordered enhanced vetting of H-1B applicants and proposed a selection process favoring higher-skilled, better-paid workers — changes moving forward regardless of the fee fight.
Impact on the USA and the world
For American tech, the ruling buys time but not certainty. Hiring managers planning 2026–27 recruiting still do not know what an H-1B will cost — $2,000 or $100,000 is not a rounding error, it is a different business model. Globally, the chaos is a gift to competitors: India, long the largest source of H-1B workers, watches every twist, while Canada and the U.K. pitch themselves as the stable alternative.
Universities are caught in the middle too: the 20,000 advanced-degree visas feed directly off U.S. graduate programs, and international enrollment decisions are made years in advance on the assumption that a work pathway exists.
What happens next
Will the administration appeal, or reimpose the fee through proper rule-making — a months-long process with public comment? The Chamber of Commerce's appeal keeps a parallel challenge alive, and the DHS permanent-fee rule (~$103,000) is the long game: if finalized, expect fresh lawsuits on new legal theories. Until then, Silicon Valley's hiring plans stay frozen.
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