US proposes increasing visa application fee; here’s how much applying for H-1B will cost now

The Biden administration has proposed a significant hike in immigration fees, including the H-1B visas. H-1B visas are much sought-after and are very popular among Indian techies. This visa allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require certain technical expertise. US tech companies bank heavily on this visa in order to hire techies from India and China.

The proposed rule has gone under a 60-day public opposition period, following which it is expected to be enforced.  

Here are the changes proposed by the Biden administration:

• Application fee for H-1B visa to increase from $460 to $780
• Application fee for L-1 visa to increase from $460 to $1,385
• Application fee for O-1 visa to increase from $460 to $1,055
• Application fee for H-2B petitions to increase from $460 to $1,080
• Number of processing days to increase to 15 business days from 15 days
• Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to eliminate biometric services fee in most cases, including the costs in the underlying immigration benefit request fee
• US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said that proposed rule would increase some fees, including the fee for certain naturalisation applications
• USCIS said it would preserve existing fee waiver eligibility for low-income and vulnerable populations
• It said it would add fee exemptions for certain humanitarian programmes
• If finalised, the rule would alter fees for more than 1 million low-income filers each year

DHS in its federal notification said that USCIS is primarily funded by fees charged to applicants and petitioners for immigration and naturalisation benefit requests. USCIS said that the new fees would allow it to fully recover its operating costs, reestablish and maintain timely case processing, and prevent the accumulation of future case backlogs. The agency receives approximately 96 per cent of its funding from filing fees.

The USCIS generally publishes a fee rule biennially, and proposes these changes to account for the expansion of humanitarian programmes, federally mandated pay raises, additional staffing requirements, and other essential investments, a media statement said.

(With PTI inputs)

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