A federal judge on Monday struck down a US$100,000 fee that US President Donald Trump imposed on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers, concluding that it constituted an unlawful tax that Congress never authorised.
US District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston issued the ruling in a lawsuit filed by 20 Democratic state attorneys general challenging a fee Trump announced in September that dramatically raised the cost of obtaining H-1B visas.
The H-1B programme offers 65,000 visas annually, with another 20,000 visas for workers with advanced degrees, approved for three to six years.
Employers seeking a visa for a foreign worker before Trump’s proclamation typically paid about US$2,000 to US$5,000 in fees depending on various factors.
The increase in fees has discouraged H-1B visa requests, according to court filings. As of February 15, US Citizenship and Immigration Services had received just 85 payments of the US$100,000 fee, the administration said in a March filing.
The administration argued that the fee constituted a monetary penalty that the president had lawful authority to impose under federal immigration law to restrict the entry of certain foreign nationals.
