Donald Trump In Trouble? States To Sue US President $1,00,000 Fee For H-1B Visa Application

A coalition of US states is preparing to sue the Donald Trump administration over a new $100,000 fee on fresh H-1B visa applications, arguing the charge is unlawful, excessively burdens employers, and threatens access to skilled workers across key industries, Bloomberg reported.

The lawsuit, expected to be filed Friday, claims the administration did not follow mandatory rulemaking procedures before introducing the fee and that the steep cost functions as an illegal barrier for companies that rely heavily on the H-1B visa programme to fill specialised roles.

H-1B visa fee challenge and leading states

California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell are heading the multistate legal action, which also includes New York and 17 other states that say the measure will damage local economies and weaken critical public services.

"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 in a statement. "The Trump administration thinks it can raise costs on a whim, but the law says otherwise."

H-1B visa fee and earlier legal challenges

This case would be at least the third lawsuit targeting the H-1B visa fee hike announced by Donald Trump in September, but it is the first such challenge filed by US states; the US Chamber of Commerce sued in October, as did a global nurse-staffing agency and several unions, and both those cases remain pending.

The attorneys general behind the latest H-1B visa fee challenge say the cost increase will hit public institutions hardest, particularly hospitals, clinics, and schools that depend on foreign professionals, including doctors, nurses, teachers, and researchers, to fill gaps in their workforce.

How the H-1B visa fee fits into Trump's overhaul

The H-1B visa programme is a major part of US employment-based immigration, allowing American-based employers to hire college-educated foreign workers for specialised jobs, and Donald Trump announced a broader overhaul in September, arguing that misuse of H-1B visas had displaced US workers.

H-1B visas are distributed through a lottery, with technology companies drawing heavily on the system; firms with the highest numbers of H-1B employees include Amazon, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Microsoft, Meta Platforms Inc. and Apple Inc., according to US government data cited by Bloomberg.

New York Attorney General Letitia James warned that the change to H-1B visa fees would harm vital services, saying, "The administration's illegal attempt to ruin this program will make it harder for New Yorkers to get health care, disrupt our children's education, and hurt our economy," and the suit also lists Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin among the challengers, according to Bloomberg, which provided inputs for the report.