“This tax was an attack on America’s ability to attract and retain the high-skilled talent that strengthens our economy and helps us meet critical workforce needs,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who co-led the plaintiff coalition, said on Monday.
The policy faced multiple legal challenges, including an ongoing appeals case by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce after a judge in Washington, D.C., ruled in December that Trump did have the authority to impose the fee. A coalition of healthcare organizations, labor unions, and individual workers also filed a lawsuit challenging the fee in October, which is still pending in federal court in California.
Prior to the change, companies typically paid between $2,000 and $5,000 to apply for an H-1B. Plaintiffs argued that the new fee would have been prohibitive for many companies to hire new foreign workers. While the fee did not apply to foreign nationals already in the U.S. on student visas or existing H-1B holders, some foreign nationals found their employment offers withdrawn or faced hiring freezes during the initial uncertainty around the policy. The Trump Administration began carving out exemptions to the fee, including for doctors and medical residents, after healthcare employers complained that the policy would strain a sector already facing labor shortages.
