In 2026, several of the Trump administration’s immigration policies have already resulted in major federal court challenges. Between June 5 and June 12, 2026, two major immigration rulings appeared to give relief to foreign nationals, employers, and families waiting for U.S. immigration benefits.
However, the federal government is now pursuing appellate relief after two rulings temporarily blocked key parts of its immigration agenda.
On June 8, 2026, a federal court struck down the administration’s $100,000 fee for H-1B applicants. And on June 5, 2026, another court ordered U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to restart immigration cases that had been frozen under a processing freeze for nationals of 39 countries.
Both rulings moved quickly into the next phase of litigation. The government appealed both decisions to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. On June 12, 2026, the district court temporarily paused the practical effect of its June 8 vacatur order while the government pursued emergency relief in the First Circuit. As a result, USCIS may, for now, continue requiring the $100,000 payment for covered H-1B petitions involving consular notification.
These developments reflect the administration’s increased use of executive action and agency guidance to reshape immigration policy. And as has become commonplace, each of these initiatives has been challenged in court.
In the H-1B fee dispute, the administration acted through a presidential proclamation. In the USCIS processing-freeze case, USCIS’s internal policies were modified to delay or halt immigration benefits. In both situations, the courts became the first major check on policies that had already affected many applicants.
Immigration policy experts have described these developments as part of a larger trend of increased uncertainty and restrictions on U.S. immigration programs. Families, employers, and investors now have to make long-term decisions around policies that can be announced quickly, challenged immediately, and partially revived while appeals continue.
For foreign nationals planning their future in the United States, favorable court rulings are not always the final word on immigration policy. A policy can be struck down one week and partially revived the next. A frozen case can begin moving again, then face a new appeal or stay request days later.
What do these developments mean for EB-5 investors? In this volatile regulatory environment, now is the time for regional center EB-5 investors to pursue the statutory grandfathering protection while it remains available.
Under the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022, which was signed into law in March 2022, investors who file their regional center Form I-526E petitions on or before September 30, 2026, are protected by the statute’s grandfathering provision. That protection can make the difference between filing under today’s EB-5 policies and being forced to plan around future changes to U.S. immigration policy.
“Within one week, we’ve seen a $100,000 H-1B fee struck down, appealed, and temporarily revived,” notes Sam Silverman, managing partner of EB5AN. “That is exactly why families pursuing U.S. permanent residence should not wait until the final weeks before September 30, 2026, to secure the protections available under current EB-5 law.”
“The recent H-1B and USCIS processing cases show how quickly immigration policy can change in practice,” Silverman concludes. “A favorable ruling may create relief, but an appeal or stay can change what applicants and employers can actually rely on.”
For EB-5 investors, the key point is that September 30, 2026 is already written into the statute. Families who file before that date can secure their place under the current EB-5 policies instead of waiting to see what future litigation or legislation may bring.
In this post, we’ll examine the latest developments in the Trump administration’s $100,000 H-1B fee and processing freeze for nationals of 39 countries—and what these legal battles mean for the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program.
The $100,000 H-1B Fee Was Struck Down, Then Temporarily Revived
The Government Is Also Appealing the USCIS Processing-Freeze Ruling
These Cases Show How Fast Immigration Policy Can Shift
September 30, 2026 Is the Key EB-5 Deadline
Filing Early Can Also Preserve Today’s Investment Rules
EB-5 Can Help Families Plan Beyond Temporary Visa Uncertainty
The Practical Next Step for EB-5 Investors
The $100,000 H-1B Fee Was Struck Down, Then Temporarily Revived
The first major development involved the Trump administration’s $100,000 fee on certain new H-1B petitions. The fee was created by a September 19, 2025, presidential proclamation.
The White House framed the proclamation as a way to protect American jobs and address alleged abuse in the H-1B program. Its September 19 fact sheet said the proclamation required a $100,000 payment for new H-1B petitions to “curb abuses” that the administration argued displaced U.S. workers and undermined national security. The proclamation directed the Department of Homeland Security to restrict decisions on covered petitions that were not accompanied by the payment.
That was a major departure from the way H-1B sponsorship had usually worked. The H-1B program allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations. Each fiscal year, the regular H-1B cap is 65,000, with an additional 20,000 numbers available under the U.S. advanced-degree exemption. Before the proclamation, employers typically paid thousands of dollars in filing and related fees. The new policy added a six-figure payment for a single covered H-1B beneficiary.
The White House later clarified that the $100,000 payment applied to new H-1B petitions submitted after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on September 21, 2025. It also said the proclamation did not apply to previously issued H-1B visas, petitions submitted before that time, or regular H-1B renewals.
This policy did not affect every H-1B case. But for new workers abroad, or cases requiring consular processing, the effect was significant.
On June 8, 2026, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Massachusetts vacated the fee. The court ruled that the $100,000 charge functioned as an unauthorized tax, not a lawful immigration fee. The court also found that the administration had exceeded its authority and violated the Administrative Procedure Act.
For employers and foreign professionals, the decision seemed to bring significant relief. The H-1B program is used by technology companies, hospitals, universities, research institutions, and many other employers that depend on high-skilled foreign workers. A $100,000 fee can make sponsorship impossible for many employers, especially smaller companies or nonprofit institutions.
Outside the courtroom, immigration policy organizations treated the decision as more than a technical ruling on fee-setting authority. FWD.us President Todd Schulte said the fee would have harmed the country’s talent pipeline and argued that expanding lawful pathways for skilled immigrants is the better policy response.
Whether one agrees with that view or not, it shows why the H-1B dispute reaches beyond a single filing fee. The legal dispute is about preserving the competitiveness of the U.S. market and the extent to which the executive branch can reshape employment-based immigration through unilateral action.
Judge Sorokin concluded that the executive branch could not use an immigration proclamation to create what functioned as a tax. That makes the case important beyond H-1B. It tests the boundary between immigration enforcement and Congress’s power over revenue.
However, the relief for the H-1B job market did not last without interruption.
After the ruling, the government appealed. The Justice Department filed its notice of appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on June 11, 2026. The district court then temporarily stayed its own order vacating the fee on June 12, 2026, to allow the First Circuit to consider the government’s stay request. As a result, USCIS may, for now, continue requiring the $100,000 fee for approval of H-1B petitions filed for consular notification or approvable only through consular notification.
The stay is temporary. The First Circuit will decide whether the fee can remain in place while the appeal continues. Employers and foreign workers therefore cannot rely on the June 8 ruling as the final answer. The fee may remain in effect during the appeal, may be blocked again, or may eventually be reviewed by higher courts.
The litigation history also shows why the final outcome is hard to predict. Months before Judge Sorokin struck down the fee, a different federal judge in Washington, D.C. rejected a separate challenge brought by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. That earlier decision took a more favorable view of the administration’s authority. Conflicting rulings often increase the likelihood of appellate review, and sometimes Supreme Court review.
This uncertainty makes employment-based immigration planning difficult. H-1B workers already depend on an annual lottery, employer sponsorship, continued employment, and changing agency policy. The $100,000 fee fight adds another layer of risk.
A worker may have a willing employer. The employer may have a real business need. The worker may be highly qualified. Yet a sudden change in legal or financial rules can still disrupt the entire immigration process.
The Government Is Also Appealing the USCIS Processing-Freeze Ruling
The second major development involved USCIS processing freezes for nationals of 39 countries.
On June 5, 2026, Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island ruled that several USCIS policies were unlawful. Those policies had delayed, suspended, or subjected immigration applications to extraordinary review based on nationality and country of origin.
Why was this policy ruled to be unlawful? Under ordinary USCIS practice, a person files a petition or application, pays the required government fee, and waits for the agency to decide whether the person qualifies for the requested benefit. The adjudication may be slow, but the basic premise is that USCIS must process the case under the law.
According to the American Immigration Council, that changed in late November 2025, when USCIS suspended the processing of immigration benefits for nationals of 39 countries. The affected cases included USCIS-administered benefit requests such as adjustment of status applications, work permits, asylum applications, naturalization applications, and certain petitions. The court later struck down the primary processing hold and several related policies. Those included a broader asylum hold, renewed review of certain cases, and policies that treated country of origin as a negative discretionary factor.
The scale of the freeze drew criticism from legal analysts across the immigration field. David J. Bier of the Cato Institute notes that USCIS memoranda had frozen nearly all legal immigration benefits for citizens of the affected countries, including work permits, visa petitions, and naturalization. He also argues that the agency had continued collecting large filing fees while refusing to adjudicate many of the affected cases, arguing that this policy “involved taking money from applicants without rendering the services they paid for.”
In other words, applicants had followed the filing process, paid the government, and then watched their cases sit without normal adjudication.
The ruling required USCIS to resume or begin processing affected cases. This included adjustment of status applications, work permits, asylum applications, and naturalization applications. For many affected applicants, the ruling meant that cases frozen for months could finally move again.
The court’s decision did not cancel the travel ban itself. It addressed the domestic USCIS processing mechanisms used to delay or freeze cases for people already in the United States. But a person outside the United States seeking a visa through a consulate may face different restrictions.
Democracy Forward, which represented the plaintiffs, described the decision in broader rule-of-law terms, arguing that the federal government cannot shut down lawful immigration pathways or discriminate based on country of origin. That argument helps explain why the ruling resonated beyond the 39-country list.
The question here was: Can USCIS create a categorical hold on immigration benefits for entire nationalities after applicants have already entered the legal process?
If an EB-5 investor or family member was already in the United States and adjusting status, and the case was caught in the freeze, the order created a path for the case to return to active adjudication.
That ruling is now also on appeal. The court entered final judgment on June 11, 2026, and USCIS filed a notice of appeal to the First Circuit on June 12, 2026.
The government has also asked the district court to stay the ruling while the appeal proceeds. As of July 1, 2026, no stay had been granted, and USCIS had stated that the vacatur applied agency-wide pending further litigation developments.
These Cases Show How Fast Immigration Policy Can Shift
The H-1B fee litigation and the USCIS processing-freeze litigation involve different legal issues. One concerns a major fee imposed on certain H-1B petitions. The other concerns USCIS delays and nationality-based processing holds.
But both cases show that U.S. immigration policy is changing quickly. Neither case directly changes EB-5 eligibility. Their relevance for EB-5 investors is practical: they show how quickly immigration rules can change, be challenged, be stayed, and remain uncertain while families are trying to make long-term plans.
A foreign national may appear to have a viable immigration path today. Then a proclamation, agency memo, court ruling, appeal, or stay can restrict that immigration path.
This is especially difficult for people relying on temporary visas. H-1B status depends on employer sponsorship. F-1 students may face limited work authorization after graduation. L-1 executives and managers depend on qualifying corporate relationships. Many nonimmigrant options also require extensions, renewals, travel, consular appointments, or continued employment.
But EB-5 offers a different type of immigration path. It is not tied to an employer. It does not require winning an annual lottery. A qualifying EB-5 investment can provide U.S. permanent residence (Green Cards) for the investor, the investor’s spouse, and unmarried children under 21.
For many families, EB-5 offers a more direct route to Green Cards than temporary visa programs exposed to repeated policy changes.
September 30, 2026 Is the Key EB-5 Deadline
The most important deadline for new EB-5 investors is September 30, 2026.
Under the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act, the regional center program was reauthorized through September 30, 2027. The law also created a grandfathering provision for investors who file their regional center Form I-526E petitions on or before September 30, 2026.
In practical terms, that provision protects timely filed investors if the regional center program later expires. USCIS must continue processing covered petitions. It may not deny those petitions because of the expiration of regional center authorization. It also may not suspend or terminate visa allocation for beneficiaries of approved covered petitions.
The statutory language is unusually direct. If regional center authorization expires, the Secretary of Homeland Security “shall continue processing” covered petitions filed on or before September 30, 2026. The law also says those petitions may not be denied because of the expiration of the regional center program, and that visa allocation may not be suspended or terminated for beneficiaries of approved covered petitions.
This protection is valuable because the regional center program depends on congressional authorization. Congress has renewed the program many times, but lapses have happened before. The most recent lapse began on June 30, 2021, before Congress restored the program through the 2022 reform law.
Investors who file by September 30, 2026, place their cases inside the statutory protection Congress already enacted. But investors who wait until after that date may have to depend on future legislation.
Investor advocacy groups have made a similar point. The American Immigrant Investor Alliance, which advocated for EB-5 grandfathering after the 2021 lapse, has warned that investors who file after September 30, 2026 may be unprotected if the regional center program lapses again in 2027.
Filing Early Can Also Preserve Today’s Investment Rules
The September 30 deadline is not the only reason to move promptly.
As of June 2026, the current minimum EB-5 investment is $800,000 for projects in a targeted employment area or qualifying infrastructure project. For projects outside those categories, the minimum is $1,050,000. These investment thresholds were set under the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act.
The statute provides that, beginning January 1, 2027, and every five years thereafter, the minimum investment amounts automatically adjust for petitions filed on or after the effective date of the adjustment. Investors who file on or after January 1, 2027, may face higher minimum investment amounts. This investment-amount adjustment is separate from the September 30, 2026 statutory grandfathering deadline discussed above—the two dates serve different purposes under the statute.
There is also the source-of-funds timeline. Preparing an EB-5 petition is not just a matter of choosing a project and wiring funds. Investors must document the lawful source and path of their investment capital. Depending on the investor’s facts, this may require years of tax records, bank statements, sale documents, business records, gift documents, loan documents, employment records, or property records.
This work can take weeks or months. It should be guided by an experienced immigration attorney. Waiting until the final weeks before September 30, 2026, creates unnecessary risk.
EB-5 Can Help Families Plan Beyond Temporary Visa Uncertainty
Many foreign nationals first come to the United States through temporary visas. For some, those visas work well for a period of time. But temporary status often becomes harder to rely on as families put down roots.
Consider the following scenarios.
Children may be approaching college age. A spouse may want work authorization. A worker may want freedom to change employers. A family may want to buy a home, build a business, or relocate permanently in the United States.
H-1B and other temporary visa categories can make those decisions difficult. They depend on rules that can change quickly. The recent $100,000 fee litigation shows how sudden those changes can be. Between the June 8, 2026 ruling, the June 11 appeal, and the June 12 stay, the practical status of the fee changed in less than one week.
The H-1B program may still be the right tool for some employers and workers. But it was never designed to give families the same freedom as permanent residence. It depends on a sponsoring employer, continued eligibility, and the legal rules in place at the time each step is taken. EB-5 serves a different purpose. It gives qualified investors and their families a direct path to Green Cards through a job-creating investment.
That is a powerful advantage in a period when other immigration options remain tied to unpredictable policy changes.
The Practical Next Step for EB-5 Investors
Anyone considering EB-5 should begin with an experienced immigration attorney. The attorney can review eligibility, identify source-of-funds issues, and create a filing plan. Investors should then begin collecting documents and reviewing projects with enough time to make a careful decision.
The September 30, 2026, deadline is approaching quickly. As of July 2026, investors have only a few months left to prepare. Source-of-funds work, project selection, document review, currency transfers, and petition preparation can all take time.
Families who want U.S. Green Cards should use the time left before September 30, 2026, to prepare carefully, file properly, and secure the strongest protection currently available under the EB-5 program.
To learn more about the U.S. immigration options available to you or begin the EB-5 process, we invite you to schedule a free consultation with EB5AN.