Indian Companies to Pay an Additional $4000 for H-1B Visa

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said in an announcement on Friday that Indian companies will be paying additional visa fees of $4000 and $4500, for some of the petitioners for H-1B and L-1 visas; as enacted by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016. The law was signed by President Obama in the December of 2015 and affects companies that employ more than 50 employees in the U.S., with more than half of the employees having an H-1B visa, L-1 visa or a non immigrant status. The increase in visa fee is in addition to fees levied on base processing, American Competitiveness & Workforce Improvement Act (1998) fee, wherever applicable, Fraud Prevention and Detection Fee, and premium processing fee, if required. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will start rejecting visa submissions made on or post February 11 2016, with an incomplete Section-1 for the H1B visa applications, H1B1 Data Collection and Filing Fee Exemption Supplement for; and the L Classification Supplement form. While the L-1 visa allows employees of an MNC which has offices in U.S. and abroad, to work in their U.S. office; the H-1B visa allows corporates to hire foreign workforce that under specialty occupations that require highly skilled workers. The recent hike in Visa fees is going to affect the temporary migration of high skill immigrants from India to the U.S. Interested in migrating to the U.S.? Talk to our consultants at Y-Axis for a free counseling session on the latest rules for migrating to the U.S.