US court rejects Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee: What it means for Indians

3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jul 25, 2026 06:44 PM IST The administration announced the higher fee as a way of preventing foreign workers from taking American jobs. (AI Generated Image)US President Donald Trump’s administration received a jolt from a federal appeals court after judges rejected its bid to revive a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers. The Trump administration had announced the steep hike in H-1B visa fees to discourage companies from hiring foreign workers over Americans. However, the Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals declined to put on hold a lower court judge’s June 8 verdict, filed after a lawsuit by 20 Democratic states, ruling that the fee constituted an unlawful tax that Congress had never authorised.US District Court Judge Leo S