New Delhi: The United States Chamber of Commerce filed a lawsuit Thursday, challenging the Trump administration’s newly imposed $100,000 fee on H1B visa petitions. The charge is unlawful and risks shutting out US employers from the skilled global workforce, it said.
In its legal filing, the US Chamber of Commerce argued that the charge violated the Immigration and Nationality Act, which requires visa fees to remain tied to the government’s actual processing costs, not punitive or restrictive measures. The lawsuit also said that US President Donald Trump exceeded his executive authority by imposing the fee through proclamation.
The US Chamber of Commerce is asking the court to block federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the US State Department—both named in the complaint—from enforcing such a measure.
In September this year, President Trump signed a proclamation imposing a one-time $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas. This measure is part of a broader effort to tighten immigration and reform the H-1B programme, which, his administration claims, has been abused to displace American workers with cheaper foreign labour.
“The President has significant authority over the entry of noncitizens into the United States,” the US Chamber of Commerce said in its filing. But—it also noted—the authority remained “bound by statute and could not directly contradict laws passed by the US Congress”.
The $1,000,000 fee—the US Chamber of Commerce said—went far beyond that and would make hiring “cost-prohibitive” for many US businesses, particularly start-ups and small or midsize firms, to sponsor skilled foreign workers.
“The new $100,000 visa fee will make it cost-prohibitive for US employers, especially start-ups and small and midsize businesses, to utilise the H-1B programme,” Neil Bradley, the US Chamber of Commerce’s executive vice president and chief policy officer, said in a statement.
The US Congress created the H-1B programme “expressly to ensure that American businesses of all sizes can access the global talent they need to grow their operations here in the US”, he added.
Goes against ‘pro-growth agenda’
Bradley pointed to what he described as a contradiction between the Trump administration’s broader pro-growth agenda—focused on tax reforms, energy independence, and deregulation—and its restrictive immigration policies.
“To support this growth, our economy will require more workers, not fewer,” he added.
The US Chamber of Commerce’s lawsuit comes amid a growing tension between the business community and the Trump administration over legal immigration policy. The US President has called it his success in securing the US border and has said he supports reforms that would allow the country to “educate, attract, and retain the world’s best and brightest”.
However, the US Chamber of Commerce argued that the new fee did just the opposite, effectively pricing out the very companies that depend on global talent to drive innovation and growth.
The business lobby, which describes itself as “the leading voice of American business”, has a long history of challenging executive actions in court. Since 2017, it has filed 25 lawsuits, including several during Trump’s first term, to block measures against federal agencies. Those lawsuits, it said, undermined Congress’s intent on immigration and other business-related policies.
The US Chamber of Commerce said it planned to continue working with Congress and the administration on “common-sense reforms” to improve the visa process for skilled workers and address the nation’s labour shortages through legal immigration.
Before the new rule, most H-1B applications cost less than $3,600. The $1,00,000 fee, set to take effect for one year beginning this month, could be extended if the administration deems it “in the interest of the United States”. The US Chamber of Commerce, however, warned that if enforced, the measure would “inflict significant harm on American businesses, which would be forced to either dramatically increase their labour costs or hire fewer highly skilled employees for whom domestic replacements are not readily available”.
H-1B visas are reserved for highly skilled workers in occupations difficult to fill domestically and are most commonly associated with the technology sector. Nearly three-quarters of H-1B recipients are from India, making the programme vital to both Silicon Valley and Indian tech talent. Major US tech firms are among the largest users of the visa, though employers hiring teachers, doctors, and other professionals outside the tech industry use it.
The Trump administration introduced the new fee last month, arguing that the H-1B system has allowed companies to replace American workers with lower-cost labour from overseas. The White House has since clarified that the new charge will not apply to existing visa holders and that employers can apply for exemptions.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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