The US Chamber of Commerce has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, challenging a new $100,000 annual fee for H-1B visa applications.
The Chamber claims the fee is unlawful and would cause major harm to American businesses.
In the lawsuit filed Thursday in Washington, D.C., the Chamber asked the court to declare that President Donald Trump exceeded the authority of the executive branch by imposing the fee. It also requested that federal agencies be barred from enforcing it.
The complaint stated that the President had significant authority over the entry of non-citizens into the United States, but that the authority was bounded by statute and could not directly contradict laws passed by Congress. The lawsuit named the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, and their respective cabinet secretaries as defendants.
The Trump administration introduced the fee last month, claiming that US employers were replacing American workers with cheaper talent from abroad. The White House later clarified that the new charge would not apply to existing visa holders and introduced an exemption form for eligible applicants.
H-1B visas are used to fill high-skilled jobs, mainly in the tech sector, where US companies struggle to find qualified candidates. The program is particularly popular among Indian professionals, who make up nearly three-quarters of approved applicants. However, other sectors, such as healthcare and education, also rely on these visas.
The Chamber argued that the new fee violates existing immigration laws governing the H-1B program. These laws require that visa fees be based on the costs incurred by the government in processing applications. Before Trump’s order, the Chamber noted that most H-1B applications cost under $3,600.
The complaint said that if the fee were implemented, it would inflict significant harm on American businesses, which would force them to either dramatically increase their labor costs or hire fewer highly skilled employees for whom domestic replacements were not readily available.
The new fee is expected to last for one year, though it could be extended if the government deems it beneficial for national interests.
Historically, H-1B visas have been distributed through a lottery system. This year, Amazon received the highest number of H-1B visas, with more than 10,000 approvals, followed by Tata Consultancy Services, Microsoft, Apple, and Google. California remains the state with the largest share of H-1B workers.
Critics of the program argue that many H-1B slots go to entry-level positions rather than senior roles requiring unique skills. They also claim that companies use the system to lower labor costs by categorizing jobs at the lowest skill level, even when hiring experienced professionals.