Attorney General Dan Rayfield and 18 other states today sued the Trump Administration over its 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.
“Oregon’s colleges, universities and research institutions rely on skilled international workers to keep labs running, courses on track and innovation moving forward,” said Attorney General Rayfield. “This enormous fee would make it nearly impossible for these institutions to hire the experts they need, and it goes far beyond what Congress ever intended. This threatens Oregon’s ability to compete, educate, and grow.”
In the lawsuit, Attorney General Rayfield and the coalition allege that the policy, which has been implemented by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is a clear violation of the law because it imposes a massive fee outside of the bounds of what is authorized by Congress and contrary to Congress’s intent in establishing the H-1B program, bypasses required rulemaking procedures, and exceeds the authority granted to the executive branch under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
The H-1B visa program allows employers to petition for highly 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.
On September 19, 2025, President Trump issued a proclamation ordering 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 DHS 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 for an exemption, 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 Oregon, where the flagship universities consistently depend on H-1B visa holders to fill faculty, researcher, and staff roles. For example, Oregon State University currently sponsors more than 150 H-1B faculty, researchers, and staff, and intends to hire additional faculty, researchers, and staff through the H-1B program. Eliminating access to H-1B faculty, researchers, and staff would inflict significant institutional harm, depriving students of critical educational opportunities.
Likewise, the University of Oregon currently sponsors more than 50 H-1B faculty, researchers, and staff. The University relies on these H-1B faculty, researchers, and staff not only to provide education to its students, but also to expand community access to scientific innovation and research developments. The University of Oregon already struggles to pay the existing fee; thus, the increased financial burden threatens to leave critical positions unfilled and impede the University of Oregon’s public-serving mission.
Typically, an employer filing an initial H-1B petition would expect to pay between $960 to $7,595 in regulatory and statutory fees. The Trump Administration’s $100,000 fee far exceeds the actual cost of processing H-1B petitions. By imposing this fee, the Administration is exceeding the fee-setting authority granted by Congress, which requires that fees be set based on the agency’s costs, rather than arbitrarily. Additionally, the Trump Administration issued the fee without going through the notice-and-comment process required by the APA and without considering the full range of impacts — especially on the provision of the critical services by government and nonprofit entities.
In filing this lawsuit, Attorney General Rayfield is joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.
