Update, September 30, 2026: A second federal judge, in Oakland, California, blocked the payment on a separate ground. See our new report.
Update, September 29, 2026: On September 18, 2026, a new proclamation extended the $100,000 entry payment through September 2027. The sections below cover the court ruling on the original measure and its implementing guidance, and they have been revised to reflect the extension.
Two different six-figure Cap-subject and cap-exempt (H-1B)The H-1B category has an annual limit of 65,000 new visas or statuses per fiscal year, plus 20,000 more for people with a U.S. master's degree or higher. Petitions counted toward that limit are cap-subject. Petitions from higher education institutions, their related or affiliated nonprofits, and nonprofit or governmental research organizations are cap-exempt.See it in the glossary charges are in the news at the same time, and they are frequently confused. This one is the older of the two. Its history has two parts: a court ruling against the implementing guidance, and a September 2026 extension of the proclamation itself.
The original measure
Presidential proclamationA formal statement from the President addressed to the public. In immigration, proclamations are often issued under INA 212(f), which lets the President suspend or restrict the entry of noncitizens when the President finds their entry would be detrimental to the interests of the United States. The Supreme Court read that authority broadly in Trump v. Hawaii (2018), though courts have said it cannot override other parts of the INA.See it in the glossary 10973 required a 100,000 dollar payment in connection with certain H-1B petitions filed on or after 21 September 2025. Agency guidance implemented it.
What the courts did
On 8 June 2026, Judge Leo Sorokin of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts vacated the guidance implementing the payment in California et al. v. Mullin. The court held that the payment functioned as a tax that the executive lacked authority to impose, and that its implementation violated the Administrative Procedure Act.
The government appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and sought a stay. On 24 July 2026 the First Circuit declined to stay the district court ruling. The merits appeal remains pending, with briefing expected to conclude in October 2026.
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On 30 September 2026, Judge Haywood Gilliam of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California blocked USCIS and the State Department from implementing the payment in a separate case, Global Nurse Force v. Trump, ruling that the agencies did not follow required rulemaking procedures. Details are in our new report.
The extension
The proclamation carried its own sunset, set for 21 September 2026. On 18 September 2026, a new proclamation extended the entry payment through September 2027, as we reported in our extension article.
How this relates to the proposed fee
In August 2026 DHS proposed a separate 103,265 dollar fee on cap-subject H-1B petitions through notice and comment rulemaking. DHS says that proposal rests on different statutory authority than the vacated payment, making the two distinct obligations.
A proposal is not a Final ruleThe version of a federal regulation that an agency publishes in the Federal Register after reviewing public comments on a proposed rule. It sets an effective date, which generally falls at least 30 days after publication, and its text is added to the Code of Federal Regulations.See it in the glossary. The comment period on the 103,265 dollar proposal closed on 24 September 2026, and the existence, timing and outcome of any later challenge to a final fee rule remain unresolved.
This describes the procedural posture as of 30 September 2026; later orders or agency actions can change it.