A federal appeals court on Friday rejected a bid by the Trump administration to impose a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to put on hold a lower court judge’s June 8 ruling in a lawsuit filed by 20 Democratic state attorneys general, striking down the fee on the basis that it constituted an unlawful tax Congress never authorized.
Background
The H-1B program offers 65,000 visas annually, with another 20,000 visas for workers with advanced degrees, approved for three to six years. Employers seeking a visa for a foreign worker before Trump’s move typically paid about $2,000 to $5,000 in fees depending on various factors. Trump, in imposing the hefty new fee, said the H-1B program “has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.”
The fee does not apply to visas granted to foreign citizens already in the U.S. on student visas, who generally make up a large share of new H-1B recipients. Few employers have paid Trump’s fee since it was instituted.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
