NEW YORK: California and 19 other US states filed a lawsuit on Friday seeking to block President Donald Trump’s US$100,000 fee on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers.
The lawsuit in federal court in Boston is at least the third to challenge the fee announced by Trump in September, which dramatically raises the cost of obtaining H-1B visas. Currently, employers typically pay between US$2,000 and US$5,000 in fees.
California attorney general Rob Bonta’s office said in a release that Trump lacks the power to impose the fee and that it violates federal law, which allows immigration authorities to collect only fees necessary to cover the cost of administering visa programmes.