H-1B Visa Filing Fees Could Be More Than Double If US Approves New Bill

H-1B visas could become more expensive if the United States approves the proposed Budget reconciliation Bill in its current form.?The Bill has proposed to include a supplementary $500 charge for each H-1B visa petition.

Companies – mostly tech and IT services providers - use H1-B visas to get highly skilled workers into the United States.?At present companies pay $460 for a basic H-1B application,?with additional lawyer, anti-fraud, and scholarship fees.

Reuters

Breakup of visa fee

The Bill also proposes additional fees for several immigration-related petitions. These include $800 for employer sponsored permanent residency and $250 for an F-1, or student visa, to be paid by the educational institute, the Economic Times mentioned in a report.

It also proposes another supplementary $500 charge for employment authorisation forms for spouses of certain non-immigrants, students seeking optional practical training and applicants for adjustment of status.

AFP

With the fee increase, a company may spend as much as $31,800 for the cost of filing an initial H-1B petition (for three years) and an extension for an additional three years, based on a National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) analysis of government fees and attorney.?

Smaller IT firms hit

The proposed increase in H-1B filing fees reflect another stab at the already injured H-1B process, Rajiv S Khanna, managing attorney at immigration.com told the publication.?

“It can cost as much as $30,000 in attorney fees, filing fees and responding to requests for evidence each time you file an H-1B or an extension. With over a million jobs vacant in the computer technology industry alone, it is unconscionable that instead of making it easier, Congress is making it more difficult,” he said.

Small businesses would be impacted more by this change, he added.

Freepik

Shatters 'cheap labour' myth

For employers that have a large proportion of H-1B and L-1 visa holders, there is an additional $4,000 fee, as well as $2,500 for premium processing of the petition, which most companies opt for.

“Employers are willing to pay these high fees for a skilled foreign worker, and this belies the myth that employers want H-1B workers because they are cheap labour,” said Cyrus D Mehta, managing partner, Cyrus D Mehta & Partners.