Second federal court blocks $100K H-1B fee, covering Trump's September renewal

A second federal judge has blocked the Trump administration's $100,000 payment requirement for new H-1B visa petitions. On September 30, 2026, US District Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland, California, vacated the agency policies implementing the fee under both the original proclamation (10973) and its September 2026 extension (11069), ruling USCIS and the State Department skipped required notice-and-comment rulemaking. This follows a June 2026 Boston court order in a separate case brought by 20 states, which the First Circuit declined to pause in July. For now, H-1B petitions for workers outside the US proceed under the ordinary fee schedule with no $100,000 payment — but the appeal is still live, and a separate DHS proposal for a $103,265 cap-subject fee is unaffected. Source: https://usimmigration.today/news/a-second-court-vacates-the-100000-h-1b-fee-policies-and-this-ruling-also-covers-the-september-2026-renewal/

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