On 30 September 2026, U.S. District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr., sitting in Oakland in the Northern District of California, granted in part a preliminary injunction in Global Nurse Force v. Trump, case number 25-cv-08454. Neutral Politics read the public copy of the order, docket 130, and checked The Economic Times, carrying Reuters and ANI, the Financial Express, and the USCIS fiscal-year 2025 report on H-1B characteristics. The accounts were checked on 2 October 2026 (IST). This note was posted at 7:36 pm IST that day.

The judge found the plaintiffs likely to succeed on their claim that agencies skipped the notice-and-comment rulemaking the Administrative Procedure Act requires. The agency policies that implement the $100,000 fee are vacated. The agencies may not enforce those policies until that rulemaking is done, and until the RFA analyses are done. That is the conclusion described at page 34 of the order. He wrote that the case "is not about whether the challenged Proclamation is good or bad." Class certification was denied without prejudice. The motion to dismiss was denied.

This is a preliminary injunction. It is not a permanent repeal of the fee. It is not the end of the H-1B. The order sets a case-management conference for 27 October 2026 at 2:00 pm, stated as the order states it.

Other courts have not all gone the same way. A Boston judge blocked the fee in June, in a case brought by 20 states. In July the First Circuit declined to pause that order. Reuters, as The Economic Times carried it, is the source for that July refusal. A federal court in the District of Columbia upheld the fee in Chamber of Commerce v. Department of Homeland Security. That case is on appeal. The Economic Times story is timed at 5:22 pm IST on 1 October. The Financial Express story, by Ashima Grover, is timed at 9:40 pm IST the same evening.

The fee itself has a later presidential step, and a separate proposal. Proclamation 11069 extended the fee for 12 months on 18 September. The Department of Homeland Security has proposed a separate fee of $103,265, published at 91 Federal Register 54,817 on 25 August. That proposal is not final. The Financial Express and the court order are the sources used here for the proposal.

USCIS reports that in fiscal year 2025, 69.9 percent of approved H-1B petitions were for beneficiaries born in India: 283,772 of 406,348. The report is dated 24 April 2026. The court order does not address Indian workers as a group. The statistic is context from USCIS. It is not a holding in the Oakland case.

The cover is a stock photograph by Sora Shimazaki on Pexels, a judge's desk with a gavel and scales. It is not a photograph of this hearing or this judge.

What's next

What is not known yet is whether the government appeals or seeks a stay, how the other appeals end, and when Homeland Security finalises its proposed rule. The next date in this case, as the order sets it, is the conference on 27 October.

Key facts

  1. The order is dated 30 September 2026, docket 130, in Global Nurse Force v. Trump, No. 25-cv-08454, in the Northern District of California.
  2. The judge found the plaintiffs likely to succeed on their claim that agencies skipped the notice-and-comment rulemaking the Administrative Procedure Act requires. The policies implementing the $100,000 fee are vacated and enjoined until that rulemaking, and the RFA analyses, are done.
  3. Class certification was denied without prejudice. The motion to dismiss was denied. The judge wrote that the case is not about whether the challenged proclamation is good or bad.
  4. A Boston judge blocked the fee in June in a case brought by 20 states. In July the First Circuit declined to stay that order. A federal court in Washington, D.C., upheld the fee in Chamber of Commerce v. DHS. That case is on appeal.
  5. Proclamation 11069 extended the fee for 12 months on 18 September. The Department of Homeland Security has proposed a separate fee of $103,265, in 91 Federal Register 54,817 on 25 August. That proposal is not final.
  6. USCIS, for fiscal year 2025, reports that 69.9 percent of approved H-1B petitions were for India-born beneficiaries: 283,772 of 406,348. The order does not address Indian workers as a group.

What each side says

What the 30 September order does

It is a preliminary injunction, granted in part. Agency policies that implement the $100,000 fee are vacated, and the agencies may not enforce them until notice-and-comment rulemaking and the RFA analyses are done. A case-management conference is set for 27 October 2026 at 2:00 pm, as the order states that time.

What it does not do

It is not a permanent repeal of the fee and not the end of the H-1B programme. Other courts have gone different ways. A separate Homeland Security fee proposal is not final. Whether the government appeals this order, or seeks a stay, is not in the accounts checked.

Not confirmed

  • Whether the government appeals this order or asks for a stay.
  • How the Boston appeal and the Chamber of Commerce appeal end.
  • When the Department of Homeland Security finalises its proposed rule.
  • Any effect the order states for Indian workers as a group. It does not address them as a group. The India share is a USCIS statistic, not a finding in the order.

Sources

  1. U.S. District Court, Northern District of California https://democracyforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Dist.N.D.Cal_._4-25-cv-08454_130.pdf · 30 Sep 2026, 5:30 AM IST
  2. The Economic Times (Reuters and ANI) https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/latest-updates/second-judge-blocks-trumps-100000-fee-for-new-h-1b-worker-visas/articleshow/134606370.cms · 1 Oct 2026, 5:22 PM IST
  3. Financial Express (Ashima Grover) https://www.financialexpress.com/immigration/huge-relief-for-indian-h-1b-workers-another-us-judge-blocks-trumps-100000-visa-fee/4351379/ · 1 Oct 2026, 9:40 PM IST
  4. USCIS, Characteristics of H-1B Specialty Occupation Workers, fiscal year 2025 https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/data/fy25_h1b_characteristics_congress_signed_04242026.pdf · 24 Apr 2026, 5:30 AM IST

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