Attorney General Bonta Urges Court to Block Trump Administration’s Unlawful New $100k Fee for H-1B Visa

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Bonta today joined a multistate amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs in Global Nurse Force, et al. v. Trump, who are challenging the Trump Administration’s unlawful policy imposing a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa petitions. H-1B visas allow U.S. employers to hire highly skilled foreign national workers in roles that require specialized skills, including as physicians, researchers, nurses, and other vital workers, to alleviate nationwide labor shortages. The new fee would create a costly barrier for employers, especially public sector and government employers, trying to fill these positions. In the brief, the attorneys general urge the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to grant a preliminary injunction blocking the policy, arguing that it is contrary to the public interest, as it would make it harder to address workforce shortages, weaken the economy, and disrupt essential services. Attorney General Bonta separately led a coalition of 20 attorneys general in challenging the Trump Administration’s unlawful H-1B policy in a lawsuit filed earlier this month.

“The Trump Administration’s $100,000 visa fee imposes unnecessary and unlawful financial burdens on public employers and will leave essential positions in critical sectors unfilled,” said Attorney General Bonta. “My office has challenged this fee in court, and today, we’re supporting a related challenge. We won’t stop fighting to protect our world-class universities, schools, and hospitals, which thrive by attracting and retaining skilled talent from around the world.”

The H-1B visa program allows employers to petition for high-skilled foreign workers to temporarily fill positions in specialty occupations that require at least a bachelor’s degree. In petitioning for an H-1B worker, the employer must submit an application, certified by the U.S. Department of Labor, that employment of the H-1B worker will not negatively affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers. Congress limits the number of H-1B visas available each year for most private employers, with the current cap set at 65,000, with an exemption of 20,000 for individuals with a master’s degree or higher. Many government and non-profit research organizations are exempt from the 65,000-person cap to ensure that the organizations are fulfilling their public service missions. 

Since its inception, the H-1B visa program has been continually tailored by Congress to carry out its purpose of meeting employers’ labor needs, while protecting the interests of American workers to ensure that they are not wrongfully displaced. Congress has repeatedly enhanced enforcement, increased penalties, and legislated on fees for H-1B petitions to prevent misuse of the program. Given its careful structure, the H-1B program has proven to be massively beneficial to the United States. H-1B workers and their dependents contribute $86 billion annually to the economy - and pay $24 billion in federal and payroll taxes, on top of $11 billion in state and local taxes.

On September 19, 2025, the Trump Administration imposed an unprecedented $100,000 fee for new H-1B visa petitions, undermining the very purpose of the H-1B visa by making it harder to address severe labor shortages in critical fields such as education and healthcare and ultimately worsening the staffing crisis. As implemented by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, through a series of written documents, the policy affects any application filed after September 21, 2025, and grants the Secretary of Homeland Security broad discretion to determine which petitions are subject to the fee or are exempt from it, raising concerns that the enforcement could be applied selectively against employers disfavored by the Trump Administration.

The $100,000 visa fee is devastating for all states, including California, and threatens the quality of education, healthcare, and other core services available to our residents. For example, the United States faces a nationwide teacher shortage, and in the 2024-2025 school year, 74% of school districts in the U.S. reported having trouble filling open positions, particularly in special education, physical sciences, ESL or bilingual education, and foreign languages. Educators are the third-largest occupation for H-1B visa holders, with nearly 30,000 educators on the visas, and nearly a thousand colleges and universities employ hundreds of H-1B personnel to support their research and education missions. Because K-12 schools, colleges, and universities are generally government or non-profit entities, they are incapable of absorbing an additional $100,000 for each H-1B hire. Ultimately, American students will be harmed by larger class sizes, less time with teachers, cuts to programs and course offerings, compromising the quality of education in California. 

Hospitals and other healthcare centers also rely on the H-1B visa program to hire physicians, surgeons, and nurses, often in low-income and working-class neighborhoods. About 11.4 million Californians — roughly one quarter of California’s population — live in areas with primary care shortages. Over the years, nearly 23,000 H-1B physicians worked in underserved communities. The United States is projecting a shortfall of 86,000 physicians by 2036. There will not be enough doctors to care for older adults, many of whom suffer increased rates of chronic disease and have other complex medical needs. In California, access to specialists and primary care providers in rural areas is already extremely limited and projected to worsen as physicians retire and these communities struggle to attract new doctors. At a time when many hospitals are already facing cuts in health insurance subsidies and reduced Medicaid payments, a $100,000 fee for H-1B healthcare workers is simply not feasible. As a result of the fee, these institutions will be forced to operate with inadequate staffing leading to decreases in the quality of patient care, increased errors, wait times, and mortality rates, and even facility closures. 

In filing the amicus brief, Attorney General Bonta joins the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.