The case of an Indian woman, named in court as 'Plaintiff Phoenix Doe', was used as an example in the first lawsuit to challenge US President Donald Trump's decision to hike the H-1B visa fee to $100,000.
The lawsuit was filed on Friday by a coalition of unions, employers, and religious groups in a San Francisco federal court. They argued that Trump did not have the power to override the law that created the H-1B visa programme, because his powers only extended to restricting the entry of certain foreign nationals.
Doe is described in the lawsuit as an Indian citizen residing in Northern California and a postdoctoral researcher, whose cap-exempt H-1B visa application has been "indefinitely paused" due to the new $100,000 fee.
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“Her research focuses on identifying the genetic and epigenetic causes of vision loss due to ageing, diseases such as diabetes, and rare inherited genetic abnormalities of unknown aetiology, with the goal of finding new ways to diagnose and treat blinding conditions,” the lawsuit said, adding that the university relied on Doe as its first postdoctoral scholar to build and advance its research program and secure future funding.
The lawsuit also mentioned that she was facing "debilitating stress and anxiety" due to the uncertainty of her future in the US—her research work was expected to go on for another two years, but the new H-1B policy would hamper that, forcing her to leave the US within four months.
The United Auto Workers union, the American Association of University Professors, the Justice Action Center, the Democracy Forward Foundation (on behalf of the Global Nurse Force), and several religious organisations are the other plaintiffs in the case, who have warned that “extorting exorbitant fees will stifle innovation".
The plaintiffs also attacked other federal agencies—such as the US State Department—for facilitating Trump's H-1B visa fee hike.
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America's H-1B programme offers 65,000 visas annually to employers bringing in temporary foreign workers in specialised fields like technology, with another 20,000 visas issued for workers with advanced degrees.
While the typical fee for H-1B visa sponsorship ranged from $2,000 to $5,000, the Trump administration hiked this fee to $100,000 for new visa recipients.