The $100,000 H-1B fee has been struck down twice. Don’t plan a party yet.

The proclamation took effect on September 21, 2025, charging $100,000 for new H-1B petitions for workers outside the U.S. A Washington, DC court upheld it in December 2025. On June 8, 2026, Judge Leo Sorokin in Massachusetts vacated it in a case brought by 20 states, and on July 24 the First Circuit refused to let the government keep collecting while it appeals.

Then, on September 18, 2026, the White House renewed the fee with a new proclamation. Twelve days later, Judge Haywood Gilliam struck that down too, in Global Nurse Force v. Trump.

Still not over. DHS published a proposed rule in August for a $103,265 fee on new cap-subject H-1B workers, and the September ruling doesn't directly touch it. A fee created through formal rulemaking is a different legal animal from one created by proclamation.

The renewed proclamation itself revealed that employers paid the original fee for only about 700 people. That isn't a fee. That's a wall with a cashier's window.

And it wasn't only tech companies standing at the wall. In the court record, a rural kidney practice described a nine-month search for a physician that produced ten applications and one qualified candidate, who needed an H-1B. Unable to pay, the practice built a waitlist of roughly 100 new patients.

While the fee bounced through courts, DHS quietly finished something more durable: the H-1B cap lottery is now weighted by wage level instead of random. Higher prevailing-wage levels get more entries. The Penn Wharton Budget Model estimates that the fee plus the weighting would raise the average pay of selected registrants by $7,551 to $18,799, mostly from the weighting alone.

Translation for hiring managers: entry-level H-1B hires just got much harder to land in the lottery, fee or no fee.

Budget two scenarios. One where the fee stays dead, one where the DHS rule revives it. Scenario planning costs a spreadsheet. Being surprised costs a req.

Look at who is already in the country. F-1 students changing status to H-1B have been exempt from the $100,000 charge, though they still face the new lottery odds.

Price roles honestly. Under wage weighting, an under priced offer is now also a worse lottery ticket.

Build a domestic bench in parallel. Contract and contract-to-hire engineers can keep a roadmap moving while immigration timelines play out. Our IT staffing team keeps a pre-screened network for exactly this, and contract talent can start while you wait on USCIS.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Confirm current fee status with immigration counsel before filing.