A US federal judge on Monday struck down the $100,000 fee imposed by President Donald Trump on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers, calling it unlawful, reported Reuters.
District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston ruled that the fee, announced by Trump in September last year, was an unlawful tax that the President did not have authorisation to issue and that it usurped the Congress's power to set immigration policy and taxes.
"Here, the substance and application of the USD 100,000 payment reveal that it is a tax, regardless of what the payment is called," Judge Sorokin wrote.
The court issued the ruling in a lawsuit filed by 20 Democratic state attorneys general challenging Trump's order, which dramatically raised the cost of obtaining H-1B visas.
The order came just days after Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin told a Senate panel that more than 200,000 applicants seeking H-1B visas to work in the US paid USD 100,000 to fast-track processing of their petitions in fiscal year 2026.
According to Mullin, applicants who pay the fee have their cases processed in approximately 15 days, while standard applications take nearly 7.5 months.
The H-1B programme is one of the most sought-after US work visas that allows American companies to hire skilled global talent and is used extensively by technology firms.
Indian professionals, including technology workers and physicians, form one of the largest groups of H-1B visa holders.