A federal appeals court refused to keep the $100,000 H-1B fee alive while the government appeals, and on September 30, 2026 a second federal court blocked it too. The fee was renewed by proclamation on September 18, but it is not being collected. It only ever applied to petitions for workers outside the U.S. — and the fight is not over.
In September 2025, Proclamation 10973 required employers to pay $100,000 when filing certain new H-1B petitions — specifically, petitions for workers who were outside the United States. On June 8, 2026, a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled the fee unlawful and vacated it nationwide, holding that a payment of that size is a tax, and only Congress can impose a tax.
The government appealed and obtained a brief administrative pause, so the fee kept being collected through June and July. In July 2026, the First Circuit denied the government's request to keep the fee in place during the appeal, finding the government had not shown it was likely to win.
In practice: USCIS has said it is complying with the court's order and is not collecting the fee (as of late September 2026). Check the USCIS H-1B page on the day you file.
Update, September–October 2026: on September 18, 2026 a new proclamation renewed the restriction for another year, to September 21, 2027. On September 30, 2026 a second federal court, in California (Global Nurse Force v. Trump), ruled against the agencies' fee policies. Reports differ on exactly what kind of order it is and how far it reaches, so we describe it as 'blocked' until the order is read. The government can appeal both rulings.
What it does not mean: the case is not over. A separate federal court in Washington, D.C. reached the opposite conclusion and upheld the fee; that split is working its way up, and the Supreme Court may ultimately decide the question.
Refunds are unresolved. Employers who paid $100,000 between September 2025 and July 2026 have no announced refund process — no confirmed mechanism, administrator, or deadline yet.
A 2025 presidential proclamation put a $100,000 price tag on filing certain new H-1B petitions. It was much narrower than the headlines suggested: it applied when the petition was filed on or after September 21, 2025 AND either the worker was outside the United States without a valid H-1B visa, or the petition asked for consular notification, port-of-entry notification, or preflight inspection.
It did NOT apply to petitions filed before that cutoff, to people who already held a valid unexpired H-1B visa, or to change-of-status, extension, or amendment petitions for people already in the U.S. That last category is the big one — most first-time cap H-1B petitions are filed for students already here changing from F-1, and those were never covered.
A coalition of twenty states sued in Massachusetts. On June 8, 2026, the court agreed with them on every theory: the charge is really a tax (which only Congress can levy), the agency skipped the required notice-and-comment rulemaking (an APA violation), and nothing in the Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes a charge like this. The court threw out the policy nationwide.
Winning and actually stopping the fee turned out to be two different things. Four days later the same judge granted the government a brief pause so the appeals court could weigh in, and the fee snapped back for about six weeks. In July 2026 the First Circuit refused to extend that pause — removing the legal basis for continued collection.
This is general information, not legal advice, and it describes active litigation that can move quickly. Immigration outcomes depend on individual facts — confirm your specific situation with a licensed immigration attorney.