Explained: What Is H-1B Visa And How 70 Percent Fee Hike Could Affect Indian Techies

In a move that could affect the American Dream of many Indians, the fees for the much-sought-after H-1B visa is set to increase by 70 per cent.

According to a Bloomberg Law report, a proposal to overhaul the immigration fees including those covering temporary and permanent work visas, has cleared White House review, the last step before the rule¡¯s publication.

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H-1B Visa fees to be hiked

According to the draft rule, released by US Citizenship and Immigration Services last year the registration fees for H-1B specialty occupation visas would be hiked by 40% to $215 (Rs 18,000).

It has further proposed to increase the fees on sponsors filing H-1B visa applications. The draft has proposed to hike the E-registration costs for the annual H-1B cap lottery from $10 to $215. The fees for selected beneficiaries' applications were expected to jump by 70% to $780 (Rs 65,000).

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What Is H-1B Visa

The H-1B visa is a nonimmigrant visa meant for US employers seeking to hire skilled foreign workers in specialty occupations.

There is an annual cap on the number of H-1B visas and in December 2023, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had limited the quota for 2024 to 65,000. In addition to this, there is an additional 20,000 H1-b visas available for beneficiaries with a master¡¯s degree or higher from a US institution of higher education.

There is also an additional 6,800 reserved for the H-1B1 program under the US-Chile and US-Singapore free trade agreements, but limited to the two nationalities.

H-1B Visa and Indian techies

Over the years, Indians, especially those in the tech sector have been the biggest beneficiaries of the H-1B programme. It allowed American tech companies, to hire Indian techies, at a much lesser cost than employing a US citizen for the same post.

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One of the biggest advantages of the H-1B visa is that it allows the spouse of the principal H-1B holder to live and work in the US for the same period as their partner.

Disadvantages of H-1B Visa

But the biggest disadvantage of the H-1B visa is that it is dependent on the employment status of the holder, meaning that if a person who came to the US under the H-1B programme lost his job, he/she has just 60 days to find a new job, failing which they have to leave the country.

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The 60-day time limit had become a major talking point in 2022 and 2023, amid the mass layoffs in the US tech sector, which also cost many on H-1B visas their jobs.

How fee-hike could affect Indians

If the proposed H-1B visa fee hikes are implemented, it will make the hiring of foreign skilled workers more expensive for US companies. This would mean that they would prefer to employ US citizens more and not immigrants.

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