US doubles H-1B visa fee on highly qualified Indian IT professionals to $4,000 from $2,000
By Neha Alawadhi, ET Bureau | 17 Dec, 2015, 10.30AM IST
NEW DELHI: The United States Congress has raised the "outsourcing fee" imposed on highly qualified Indian IT professionals to $4,000 from $2,000 after it lapsed on September 30 this year.
The fees will be increased "for applicants that employ 50 or more employees in the United States if more than 50 percent of the applicant's employees are nonimmigrants...," the Congress said on Wednesday in a spending bill.
The $2,000 outsourcing fee for H-1B visas and a $2,250 fee for some L-1 visas,which are used for intra-company transfers was adopted by the United States in August 2010. It was valid for five years, and was not renewed by the US Congress after it lapsed in September this year.
The move is likely to not go down well with the IT industry, which relies heavily on the visas for transfer of skilled workers to client locations. There is also growing discontent about the H-1B visa process among skilled workers in the US, who say the visas are a way for big companies to hire cheaper foreign workers.
Earlier in the day, the Press Information Bureau said in a statement that Prime MinisterNarendra Modi "shared with President Obama the concerns of the Indian IT industry and professionals on the proposed legislation in the US Congress relating to H1B and L1 visas," during a call between the two.
As the US heads towards Presidential elections next ear, the debate around H-1B visas has been heating up in the country, with politicians asking for cuts in the existing number of H-1B visas, and putting caps on the wages of the IT employees.
India's $146 billion IT outsourcing industry has been a beneficiary of the temporary US work visas that are required by skilled foreign workers
The fees will be increased "for applicants that employ 50 or more employees in the United States if more than 50 percent of the applicant's employees are nonimmigrants...," the Congress said on Wednesday in a spending bill.
The $2,000 outsourcing fee for H-1B visas and a $2,250 fee for some L-1 visas,which are used for intra-company transfers was adopted by the United States in August 2010. It was valid for five years, and was not renewed by the US Congress after it lapsed in September this year.
The move is likely to not go down well with the IT industry, which relies heavily on the visas for transfer of skilled workers to client locations. There is also growing discontent about the H-1B visa process among skilled workers in the US, who say the visas are a way for big companies to hire cheaper foreign workers.
Earlier in the day, the Press Information Bureau said in a statement that Prime MinisterNarendra Modi "shared with President Obama the concerns of the Indian IT industry and professionals on the proposed legislation in the US Congress relating to H1B and L1 visas," during a call between the two.
As the US heads towards Presidential elections next ear, the debate around H-1B visas has been heating up in the country, with politicians asking for cuts in the existing number of H-1B visas, and putting caps on the wages of the IT employees.
India's $146 billion IT outsourcing industry has been a beneficiary of the temporary US work visas that are required by skilled foreign workers
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