Steep H-1B fee hike to burn a big hole in IT companies pockets

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

visa fees could make doing business extremely difficult for Indian IT service providers and make a significant dent on their pockets.

The Indian IT industry relies on H-1B visas to take tens of thousands of highly skilled workers to the US for specialty occupations as such professionals are in short supply there.

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In April, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) implemented a series of fee increases for immigration processes. For H-1B visas, it increased the registration fee by 2050% to $215 from $10 and application fee by 70% to $780 from $460. It also added a $600 asylum fee while filing an H-1B and other petitions, which experts said has no correlation with a non-immigrant work visa like H-1B.

“The drastic percentage increase and added asylum fee all at once makes things difficult,” said Shivendra Singh, vice president — global trade and development at industry association Nasscom.

The visa fee hikes mean that employers may have to spend over $33,000 in legal and government fees every time they file a petition for H-1B visa for initial employment or employment extension, he said, citing analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy.

Jonathan Wasden, managing attorney at immigration litigation firm Wasden Law, said the rules could