Press Release  AG Campbell Sues Trump Administration Over Unlawful $100k Fee For H-1B Visa

Boston — Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell co-led a coalition of 20 states in suing 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, like physicians, researchers, and nurses, to alleviate nationwide labor shortages. In the lawsuit, AG Campbell and the coalition allege that the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) policy is a clear violation of the law. The policy imposes a massive fee outside the bounds of what is authorized by Congress.  In addition, it is 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 Trump Administration’s unlawful fee on H-1B visas will exacerbate staffing shortages in critical fields across the Commonwealth, depriving our universities of world-class faculty and researchers and leaving our K-12 classrooms overcrowded and understaffed,” said AG Campbell. “I won’t stand by as this Administration imposes exorbitant fees that harm our residents and state economy.” 

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 when there are not enough domestic employees to fill the needed roles. 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 ensuring that American workers are not wrongfully displaced. On September 19, 2025, President Trump issued a proclamation ordering an unprecedented $100,000 fee for new H-1B visa petitions, making it harder to address severe labor shortages in critical fields such as education and health care and ultimately worsening staffing shortages for critical positions. As implemented by DHS, the policy affects any application filed after September 21, 2025 and grants the DHS Secretary broad discretion to determine which petitions are subject to the fee or may be granted an exemption, raising concerns that the enforcement will be applied selectively against employers disfavored by the Trump Administration.  

The $100,000 visa fee is devastating for all states, including Massachusetts, and threatens the quality of education, health care, and other core services available to their residents. For example, nearly 30,000 educators have H-1B visas nationwide. The University of Massachusetts alone currently sponsors more than 340 H-1B faculty, staff, and researchers. The K-12 schools, colleges, and universities hiring these educators are generally government or non-profit entities incapable of absorbing an additional $100,000 for each H-1B hire. Hospitals and other health care centers also rely on the H-1B visa program to hire physicians, surgeons, and nurses, often times in low-income and working-class neighborhoods. Nearly 17,000 H-1B visas went to workers in medicine and health occupations in the 2024 fiscal year, and half of those were physicians and surgeons. Without foreign-trained physicians, the United States projects a shortfall of 86,000 physicians by 2036. 

In their lawsuit, AG Campbell and the coalition allege that the Trump Administration’s H-1B visa fee violates the APA and the U.S. Constitution. Fees associated with H-1B visas have long been established by DHS following the APA’s notice-and-comment process pursuant to congressional authority, which limits fees to the amount necessary to cover the cost of processing the visa. Typically, an employer filing an initial H-1B petition would expect to pay between $960 to $7,595 in regulatory and statutory fees, depending on variables like the size of the employer and whether they elect expedited processing. The Trump Administration’s $100,000 fee far exceeds the actual cost of processing H-1B petitions. 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. 

Joining AG Campbell in filing this lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.  

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