$100,000 H-1B Fee Remains Blocked as Second Federal Court Rules Against Implementation

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.

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Settlement in Federal Lawsuit Results in Significant Changes to H-4, L and E Work Permits

Today it was announced that Lawyers from the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) reached a settlement with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in Shergill, et al. v. Mayorkas, which provides meaningful relief to H-4 and L-2 nonimmigrants facing historic processing delays for dependent spousal work permits (also known as Employment Authorization Documents or EAD cards). We outline these new changes below.

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