The US Chamber of Commerce has filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday against US President Donald Trump’s administration for imposing an annual fee of US$ 100,000 for new H-1B visa applications, claiming the fee is unlawful.
In its lawsuit, the Chamber has asked the federal court in Washington DC to declare that Trump exceeded the executive branch’s authority by imposing the fee and block federal government agencies from enforcing it, as it will significantly harm US businesses.
The Chamber also argues that the new fee violates the immigration laws that govern the H-1B programme, including the requirement that fees be based on the costs incurred by the government in processing visas.
“The President has significant authority over the entry of non-citizens into the United States, but that authority is bounded by statute and cannot directly contradict laws passed by Congress,” the complaint read, while naming the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and their respective cabinet secretaries as defendants.
Also Read: Lawsuit challenges Trump’s H-1B visa fee of USD 100,000
Last month, Trump signed a proclamation that hiked the visa fee on new applications, arguing that employers were replacing American workers with those from overseas for cheaper salaries. The White House then clarified that the fee won’t apply to existing visa holders and also offered a form to request exemptions from the charge.
H-1B visas are meant for bringing in high-skilled foreign workers into the US when companies there find it hard to fill in vacancies from local talent. Almost three quarters of workers in Big Tech firms on the US H-1B visa programme are from India. However, there are also employees in other important categories, like teachers and doctors, who are not from the tech sector and working in the US on the visa.
Before the fee hike on the visa, most H-1B visa applications cost less than US$ 3,600, according to the Chamber.
“If implemented, that fee would inflict significant harm on American businesses, which would be forced to either dramatically increase their labour costs or hire fewer highly skilled employees for whom domestic replacements are not readily available,” said the complaint.
The hiked visa fee is scheduled to expire after a year, but could be extended by the government if it determines that it is in the interest of the US to keep it.
Those who support the visa fee hike claim that while the H-1B visa programme is not supposed to undercut US wages or displace US workers, companies can opt to pay less by classifying jobs at the lowest skills level, even though the workers hired have more experience.
This year, Amazon was the top recipient of H-1B visas with more than 10,000 awarded to it, followed by Tata Consultancy Services, Microsoft, Apple, and Google.
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