A federal judge has struck down the $100,000 fee that President Donald Trump placed on new H-1B visas, ruling the charge unlawful, according to Reuters. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Bos
A federal judge has struck down the $100,000 fee that President Donald Trump placed on new H-1B visas, ruling the charge unlawful, according to Reuters.
U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston issued the decision Monday, ordering the fee invalidated.
It came in a lawsuit brought by 20 Democratic state attorneys general, who challenged the charge Trump announced in September that dramatically raised the price of obtaining an H-1B visa.
Related: Major U.S. financial bill sees odds slashed to 60%
The H-1B is the main U.S. work visa for highly skilled foreign professionals in specialty fields such as software engineering, and it is the program technology companies lean on most to fill technical roles. The visa is capped at 85,000 new grants a year, and a large share of recipients come from India.
Standard government filing fees for an H-1B have historically run from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Trump's $100,000 charge represented an enormous jump, steep enough that critics warned it would price many employers out of hiring foreign talent and push skilled workers to other countries.
For the tech sector, the decision removes, at least for now, one of the largest cost barriers the industry had faced in recruiting overseas.
Major employers had argued the fee threatened their ability to staff engineering and research teams that depend heavily on H-1B hires.
The ruling invalidates the fee, but it is unlikely to be the final word. Decisions like this can be appealed, and the Trump administration has fought to defend its immigration measures in court. For now, the $100,000 charge is off the table.
Please refresh the story for more updates.
The ruling is particularly relevant for the technology and crypto sectors, which rely heavily on specialized foreign talent hired through the H-1B program.
Crypto firms compete with Silicon Valley companies for engineers, cryptographers and protocol developers, many of whom enter the U.S. workforce through skilled-worker visas.
Industry leaders had previously criticized the proposed fee, warning that significantly higher hiring costs could push startups and workers toward other jurisdictions.
The dispute also attracted attention on prediction markets.
A Polymarket contract asking whether courts would block the $100,000 H-1B fee generated roughly $99,000 in trading volume after launching in September. The market ultimately resolved to "No" before Monday's ruling struck down the fee.
Related: BlackRock reveals bold call on the stock market rally
