Daijiworld Media Network - Washington
Washington, Dec 13: As many as 20 US states have filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s decision to impose a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa petitions, arguing that the move is unlawful and threatens essential public services such as education and healthcare.
The lawsuit targets a policy implemented by the Department of Homeland Security that sharply increases the cost for employers seeking to hire high-skilled foreign workers under the H-1B visa programme, which is widely used by hospitals, universities and public schools. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose office is leading the case, said the administration lacked the authority to impose such a fee.
“As the world’s fourth largest economy, California knows that when skilled talent from around the world joins our workforce, it drives our state forward,” Bonta said, adding that President Donald Trump’s “illegal” $100,000 H-1B visa fee creates unnecessary financial burdens on public employers and worsens labour shortages in key sectors.
President Trump ordered the fee through a proclamation issued on September 19, 2025. The DHS applied the policy to H-1B petitions filed after September 21, granting the Secretary of Homeland Security discretion to decide which applications are subject to the fee or qualify for exemptions.
The states argue that the policy violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the US Constitution by bypassing mandatory rulemaking procedures and exceeding congressional authority. They pointed out that fees associated with the H-1B programme have historically been limited to covering the cost of administering the system. At present, employers filing initial H-1B petitions pay between $960 and $7,595 in combined statutory and regulatory fees.
Under federal law, employers must certify that hiring H-1B workers will not negatively impact the wages or working conditions of US workers. Congress caps most private-sector H-1B visas at 65,000 annually, with an additional 20,000 reserved for applicants holding advanced degrees. Government and non-profit employers, including schools, universities and hospitals, are generally exempt from this cap.
The attorneys general warned that the new fee would aggravate staffing shortages, particularly in education and healthcare. During the 2024–2025 school year, 74 per cent of US school districts reported difficulty filling vacancies, especially in special education, physical sciences, ESL or bilingual education, and foreign languages. Educators are the third-largest occupational group among H-1B visa holders.
Healthcare providers are also heavily dependent on the programme. Nearly 17,000 H-1B visas were issued for medicine and health-related occupations in fiscal year 2024, around half of them to physicians and surgeons. The US is projected to face a shortage of 86,000 physicians by 2036.
The lawsuit was filed by Bonta along with Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, and joined by attorneys general from Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
The H-1B programme remains a crucial pathway for skilled foreign professionals, including a large number of Indian nationals working in technology, healthcare and academic research across the United States.