What’s Happening

On September 30, 2026, a federal court in California issued a ruling blocking the $100,000 H-1B fee.

In Global Nurse Force v. Trump, Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. sided in part with the groups challenging the fee and struck down the government agency policies that put it into practice. The agencies cannot enforce or apply those policies unless they first go through the formal process the law requires for creating a new rule. This is an early-stage ruling, and the case is still ongoing.

This is the second federal court to block the $100,000 fee. As D&S previously reported, a federal court in Massachusetts struck down the fee in June 2026. The government is appealing that decision, but the appeal court refused to let the fee go back into effect while the appeal plays out.