President Donald Trump’s plan to impose a $100,000 charge on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers has suffered another legal setback after a federal judge in California halted its enforcement.

The ruling by US District Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland prevents the US Citizenship and Immigration Services and the State Department from implementing the fee while a lawsuit challenging the measure proceeds. Reuters reported the development.

The judge found that the federal agencies had not followed the required rule-making procedures before putting the charge into effect. The decision came in a case brought by a coalition comprising unions, employers and nonprofit organisations.

The latest ruling follows an earlier decision by a federal judge in Boston, who temporarily blocked the fee in June in a separate case filed by 20 US states. An appeals court in Boston subsequently declined to suspend that decision, leaving the charge blocked in that case as well.

Meanwhile, the legal dispute surrounding the fee is continuing on other fronts. The US Chamber of Commerce has filed a separate lawsuit challenging the measure, while the Department of Homeland Security has moved toward establishing a permanent charge of about $103,000 through a separate process.

According to Reuters, the H-1B programme allows US employers to recruit foreign professionals for specialised jobs and is widely used by technology companies. The programme currently provides 65,000 visas annually, alongside an additional 20,000 places for workers with advanced degrees. Trump’s $100,000 charge represents a substantial increase from the fees that previously ranged from about $2,000 to $5,000, depending on the circumstances.