Move to hike H1B visa fee will hit Indian IT companies

Washington: In a move that is expected to hit Indian IT companies majorly, the US government has decided to hike H-1B visa fee from next fiscal.

In a statement, USCIS listed out the details of the fees to be filed by the applicants for H-1B visas, which starts from a base fee of $325 to $2,000 by the petitioner who employs 50 or more employees in the US - where more than 50 percent of its workers in the US are in H-1B or L-1 non- immigrant status.

This year, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is charging $750 for employers with 1 to 25 full-time equivalent employees, and $1,500 for employers with 26 or more full-time equivalent employees.

[caption id="attachment_258172" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="The USCIS hiked its H-1B visa fees to $750 for employers with 1 to 25 full-time equivalent employees and $1,500 for employers with 26 or more full-time equivalent employees."][/caption]

There is another $500 listed as fraud prevention and detection fee. And employers seeking premium processing service, in which application is processed within 15 days, need to submit an additional $1,225, it said.

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India's software and services companies earn around 60 percent of their revenues from the US and employ a large number of professionals here. USCIS also said that applications for the most sought after H-1B work visa - used extensively by Indian IT professionals - for the fiscal beginning 1 October, would be accepted beginning 2 April.

The congressionally mandated numerical limitation on H-1B petitions for the fiscal year 2013 is 65,000, as has been in the previous years. Additionally, the first 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of individuals who have earned a US master's degree or higher are exempt from the fiscal year cap.

PTI