Trump's $100,000 H-1B Visa Move Under Review By California AG

California’s top lawyer slammed the Trump administration for adding a $100,000 application fee on the widely used H-1B visa program for skilled workers, saying it creates “uncertainty and unpredictability” for businesses in his state and that he is reviewing its legality.

The changes announced by President Donald Trump last week will have an “adverse impact” on California, which has relied on the visa program for years to help drive innovation, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg News in New York. 

“So the short answer is, we are looking at it,” said Bonta, a Democrat who took office in 2021. “We will assess whether there’s a legal violation. If it’s a policy that we don’t agree with but it’s legally sound, we won’t challenge it. If it’s unlawful, we will.”

Trump’s policy, his biggest step yet toward overhauling the legal migration system in the US, would drastically increase the cost of a program popular with some of the largest American companies. The H-1B program has become a lightning rod in conservative circles as critics argue that recipients displace American workers.

The H-1B visa program is especially important for Silicon Valley’s tech sector, which uses it to bring in skilled engineers and programmers. Finance companies and consulting firms also use the program. The changes could reduce work authorizations for immigrants by as many as 5,500 a month, according to an analysis by JPMorgan Chase & Co. economists.

“We wouldn’t be here without the talent that has come to California on these visas,” Bonta said. He added that businesses and people want certainty from the government “and you just don’t get that that often, unfortunately, from the Trump administration.” 

Bonta has joined other Democratic state attorneys general in filing dozens of lawsuits challenging an array of Trump administration policies, including his executive order restricting automatic birthright citizenship.

The attorney general said he is examining whether the changes to the H-1B visa program violate the federal Administrative Procedure Act, which bars abrupt rule changes without a period of public notice. 

“You need to have a reasoned justification” for policy changes, the attorney general said. “It can’t be arbitrary, it can’t be capricious, and so we’ve brought cases on that basis quite a few times in the past, and it might be appropriate here, but we’re still looking.”