Suit in US challenges H-1B fee hike
A coalition challenges Trump's H-1B visa fee hike, arguing he lacks authority to change immigration rules, impacting many foreign workers and employers.
A coalition of workers unions, non-profit organisations and religious groups launched the first legal challenge against President Donald Trump’s H-1B visa fee hike, arguing the president lacks authority to unilaterally alter the terms of an immigration programme created by Congress.
The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court in the Northern District of California on Friday, seeks to overturn Trump’s presidential proclamation that raised H-1B application fees from roughly $2,000 to $100,000 — a change widely expected to make hiring foreign workers uneconomical for most US companies.
The legal challenge represents the first significant effort to contest the Trump administration’s skilled immigration crackdown and could determine how much flexibility any president has to alter visa programmes without congressional approval.
Immigration lawyers told HT the case’s outcome will have significant ramifications for Indian professionals working in America on H-1B visas, who comprise over 70% of the programme’s beneficiaries, and, over time, the future of the Indian-American diaspora.
The lawsuit brings together influential political groups affected by the fee hike, including workers unions, religious institutions, and non-profits that rely on H-1B workers.
Calling Trump’s proclamation “arbitrary” and “capricious,” petitioners argued the president cannot impose new fees and taxes without legislative authorisation.
“The $100,000 requirement is also arbitrary and capricious. The government failed to consider how extorting exorbitant fees will stifle innovation. The government failed to consider harms to hospitals, churches, schools and universities, and small businesses and non-profits, or how the fee will harm communities across the nation,” the lawsuit states.
Trump, homeland security secretary Kristi Noem, and the department of homeland security are named as defendants.
At its core, the case questions whether the President has the legal authority to rewrite filing requirements, such as adding a $100,000 fee, or whether such changes must come from Congress under the Immigration and Nationality Act,” Nicole Gurnara, principal immigration attorney at Manifest Law, told HT.
“That distinction matters because it will determine how much flexibility the current and any future administrations have to reshape visa programs without going through the legislative process,” Gurnara said.
“But over the longer horizon, a ruling will likely clarify how stable and predictable the program can be, which matters enormously to Indian workers and other H-1B professionals who have built their lives in the United States, as well as to the employers who rely on their contributions,” she added.
The H-1B visa programme has grown increasingly controversial within the United States, with the Trump administration alleging systematic abuse to undercut American-born workers.
The legal challenge arrives as thousands of aspiring Indian professionals confront the reality that traditional pathways from student visas through H-1B to permanent residency have become financially prohibitive for most employers.
