Another federal judge has struck down the $100,000 fee imposed on the entry of new H-1B visa holders, also invalidating the September 2026 proclamation that renewed the fee. While litigation is likely to continue, the ruling makes it less likely the Trump administration will be permitted to reinstate the $100,000 immigration fee. The decision does not directly bear on a DHS proposed rule published in August to enact a $103,265 fee on new H-1B professionals subject to the annual limit, but plaintiffs made several arguments similar to criticisms of the DHS proposed rule submitted in comments to the Federal Register.

Global Nurse Force v. Trump, which included a church, unions, a pastor, a professors’ group and a nurse staffing company as plaintiffs, was the first lawsuit filed against the Trump administration on the $100,000 H-1B fee.

On Sept. 30, in an order in Global Nurse Force v. Trump , U.S. District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr., in the Northern District of California, wrote, “The Agency Policies are VACATED and REMANDED to Agency Defendants. Agency Defendants, and all persons acting under their direction, are enjoined from enforcing or implementing the Agency Policies made pursuant to or in implementation of Proclamation No. 10973 and its extension in Proclamation No. 11069, until notice-and-comment rulemaking under the APA (Administrative Procedure Act) and regulatory flexibility analyses under the RFA have been conducted.”

According to Judge Gilliam, “There is no question here that Agency Defendants failed to consider any alternatives or the reliance interests of the regulated parties. As such, Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their claim that the Agency Policies are arbitrary and capricious.” He also ruled, “The Agency Policies accordingly are most accurately characterized as legislative rules subject to notice-and-comment rulemaking.” The Trump administration did not give affected parties an opportunity to comment on the $100,000 fee and the policies implementing the proclamation.

“A plaintiff seeking a preliminary injunction must ‘demonstrate that irreparable injury is likely in the absence of an injunction,’” wrote Judge Gilliam. “The Court finds that Plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of irreparable harm absent the requested injunction.” He cited businesses that could not serve patients, students or customers when blocked from hiring an H-1B visa holder because they could not pay the $100,000 fee.

In June, in a ruling that applied nationwide, a federal judge also struck down the Trump administration’s $100,000 fee. U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin, in the District of Massachusetts, agreed with a coalition of 20 states, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, and supported the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment. He declared, “The Policy implementing the Proclamation is declared unlawful and is vacated in its entirety.”

On Sept. 18, 2026, the White House posted a presidential proclamation that renewed the $100,000 fee levied on the entry of new H-1B professionals. The proclamation revealed that the Sept. 2025 $100,000 fee effectively prohibited employers from hiring new H-1B visa holders, with employers paying the $100,000 fee for only about 700 individuals.

H-1B temporary visas are often the only way for high-skilled foreign nationals to work in the United States long term. Employers must pay the higher of the actual or prevailing wage paid to U.S. professionals with similar experience and qualifications. Companies recruiting at U.S. universities find that international students make up about 75% to 80% of full-time graduate students in AI-related fields, such as computer and information sciences.

Significant Immigration Policy And Administrative Issues In The Ruling

The administration argued that employers lacked standing to sue if they did not apply for waivers from the fee. The Sept. 18, 2026, proclamation did not mention that any employer in the past year received a “national interest” waiver that could exempt it from paying the $100,000 fee.

Judge Gilliam did not find the Trump administration’s argument persuasive. “Defendants do not explain why seeking a discretionary exception is a prerequisite to standing. . . . Neither the Proclamation nor the USCIS guidance, however, explains when a worker’s presence in the United States would be in the national interest or under what circumstances requiring the payment of the new fee ‘would significantly undermine the interests of the United States.’ There is simply no basis in the record for the Court to conclude that any Plaintiff would qualify for and obtain a national interest exception such that some Plaintiffs’ failure to seek the exception somehow undermines their standing.”

The judge noted that BAE, a privately held automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, “requested a ‘national interest’ exception on November 14, 2025, but has yet to receive a response.” He wrote, “Nephrology Associates also has been waiting almost a year for a decision on its request for a national interest exception but has not heard anything. Defendants’ indefinite delay does not make Plaintiffs’ harm speculative. If that were the case, Defendants could preclude anyone from challenging the Proclamation or Agency Policies by refusing to ever act on a discretionary exception request.” The judge added, “The Court declines to adopt an interpretation of standing that could be manipulated this way.”

The case shed light on a key aspect of H-1B visas: employers outside the technology sector use them widely, and they are often the only way to hire a high-skilled foreign national (or sometimes anyone) with certain highly specialized skills.

Nephrology Associates, a rural medical practice that serves patients with kidney issues, “explained that ‘[n]early all of [its] physicians have been or are currently on an H-1B visa.’” Judge Gilliam wrote, “Recently, after retaining a recruiting company and a nine-month search, Nephrology Associates only received ten applications for an open physician position, and only one applicant—an Indian physician completing her fellowship in the United States on a J-1 visa—was qualified for the position and willing to accept its terms. The physician returned to India following completion of her J-1 program and the company filed the H-1B petition, which remains pending.”

Nephrology Associates could not afford to pay the $100,000 fee. “Because it has been unable to hire another physician in the interim, the company has had to move patient appointments and delay essential care, and now has a waitlist of approximately 100 new patients.”

“The Court is similarly unpersuaded by Defendants’ arguments that Plaintiffs only speculate that they will be unable to fill their existing roles with domestic workers,” wrote the judge. He cited a declaration by Lower Brule Day School, a K–12 school located on a Sioux reservation in rural South Dakota. “For the two positions for the 2026–2027 school year, the school received just ten applications, and all ten candidates are foreign nationals who would require H-1B visa sponsorship. The school’s superintendent indicated that this is consistent with their prior recruitment efforts.”

Trump administration lawyers made the same immigration argument as Vice President JD Vance: All employers should hire only U.S. workers. “Defendants urge that GVAC has not explained its ‘belief that [it] could not fill [its] limited vacancies by focusing [its] efforts to recruit domestically.’” However, GVAC operates three K–8 tuition-free, public charter schools in Colorado that offer language immersion with instructors possessing native-language skills “who also bring their unique cultural perspectives and competencies from their home countries into the classroom.” As a result, the school often needs to recruit language teachers from other countries.

Immigration attorney Charles Kuck of Kuck Baxter, one of the plaintiff attorneys in Global Nurse Force v. Trump , said in an interview, “I am grateful that the judge saw the blatant violations of the Administrative Procedure Act and held the government to the law for the thousands of professionals who want to contribute to our great country.”