Appeals Court Agrees To Fast-Track Challenge To $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A federal appeals court on Jan. 5 agreed to expedite a business group’s appeal of a court ruling that upheld the Trump administration’s decision to increase the fee for H-1B visas for employees in specialty occupations to $100,000.

Washington-based U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell issued a ruling on Dec. 23, 2025, declining to block the fee increase. Howell also granted summary judgment in favor of the Trump administration.

The H-1B program allows U.S. employers to temporarily hire foreign workers in occupations that require “the theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge and a bachelor’s degree or higher in a directly related specific specialty (or its equivalent) as a minimum for entry into the occupation in the United States,” according to a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) web page.

Specialty occupations covered under the program include engineering, mathematics, architecture, medicine and health, education, law, and accounting.

Before the policy change, the fee ranged from $2,000 to $5,000, depending on the employer’s size.

Plaintiffs filed an appeal of Howell’s decision with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Dec. 29, 2025. They included the Chamber of Commerce—a business federation with about 300,000 direct members—and the Association of American Universities, which represents 69 U.S.-based research universities, both of which had sued to block the policy.

The plaintiffs said in a motion to expedite the case filed with the appeals court on Jan. 2 that a ‍speedy review was necessary to preserve employers’ rights ahead of the annual H-1B visa lottery scheduled to begin in March. The Trump administration did not oppose the quicker timeline.

On Jan. 5, the D.C. Circuit granted the plaintiffs’ motion to expedite the case.

The court agreed to ‌a schedule that would allow oral arguments in the case to move forward in February. The first round of briefs is due from the plaintiffs by Jan. 9.

President Donald Trump signed Proclamation 10973 on Sept. 19, requiring that the $100,000 fee be paid before employers’ petitions for new H-1B visas are processed.

“The large-scale replacement of American workers through systemic abuse of the program has undermined both our economic and national security,” the proclamation states.

“Some employers, using practices now widely adopted by entire sectors, have abused the H-1B statute and its regulations to artificially suppress wages, resulting in a disadvantageous labor market for American citizens, while at the same time making it more difficult to attract and retain the highest skilled subset of temporary workers, with the largest impact seen in critical science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.”

The number of H-1B visas issued annually is capped at 65,000, with an additional 20,000 for advanced U.S. degree holders.

California and 19 other states—including New York, New Jersey, and Illinois—are also suing the Trump administration over the higher H-1B visa fee.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a Dec. 12 statement that the $100,000 visa fee “creates unnecessary—and illegal—financial burdens on California public employers and other providers of vital services, exacerbating labor shortages in key sectors.”

The Department of Homeland Security announced further changes to the H-1B visa process last month.

As of Feb. 27, 2026, the department will be implementing a “weighted selection process” intended to rein in the current random lottery system and prioritize higher-skilled and higher-paid foreign nationals.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a Dec. 23 statement that the current random selection process allowed U.S. employers to exploit the system by “flooding the selection pool with lower-skilled foreign workers paid at low wages, to the detriment of the American workforce.”

Reuters contributed to this report.