The US Congress is set to impose high fees almost double to earlier for H1-B and L1 visas. Indian IT firms will be the worst affected with this huge hike. Congressional leaders decided to impose a special fee of $4,000 on certain categories of H-1B visas and $4,500 on L-1 visas. The US House of Representative is slated to vote on the $1.1 trillion spending bill deal on Thursday.
The new fees will be applicable for companies that have at least 50 employees and more than 50 percent of them are on non-immigrant H1 B and L1 visas.
It will mean that Indian companies operating in the U.S such as TCS and Wipro will be affected by it, while American companies will have only a fraction of their employees on non-immigrant visas and would stay under the 50 percent threshold.
It is also decided that part of the money raised through the special fees will fund health care of 9/11 first responders under the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, the other part will fund implementing a biometric entry and exit data system under the Department of Homeland Security.
Though the lawmakers behind the bill described it as a temporary provision, the new H-1B and L-1 visa fee increase is for a period of 10 years as against a previous provision of five years.