US Govt Increases H1B Visa Fees By 21%, L1 Visa Fees By 85%: This Is What You Need To Pay Now

In a big setback to Indian techies who are already battered due to the H1B visa ban, US Govt has now increased the H1B visa application fes along with L-1 visa fees.

The fees have been increased by upto 75%.

Find out what you need to pay now for applying for the work visas to US.

H1B Visa, L1 Visa Application Fees Hiked

The Department of Homeland Security, under which US Citizenship and Immigration Services comes, has announced that the visa application fees for both H1B and L1 have been increased.

While the H1B visa application fees has been increased by 21%, the L1 visa application fees has been increased by 75%.

H1B visa is the work visa, while L1 visa is the inter-company transfer visa, which is also in high demand.

Earlier, H1B visa application fees used to be $460, which has now become $555, an increase of 21%.

Earlier, L1 visa application fees used to be $460, which has now been increased to $850, an increase of 85%.

The new fees will be applicable from October, 2020.

IT firms which have more than 50 employees, and whose more than 50% employees are already on H1B visa, they will need to pay an additional $4000 per visa extension.

Why US Govt Increased The Visa Application Fees?

Since US Govt has banned all work visas, and Green card applications to protect American jobs, USCIS is getting less and almost negligible visa applications.

And USCIS is that Govt department, which is not funded by any external resources, and their fees is the main source if income.

Since their source of income has stopped, USCIS has decided to increase H1B visa and L1 visa fees to compensate the loss.

Infact, they are reeling under a loss of $1 billion as of now.

USCIS said, “As required by federal law, USCIS conducted a comprehensive biennial fee review and determined that current fees do not recover the cost of providing adjudication and naturalization services. DHS is adjusting USCIS fees by a weighted average increase of 20% to help recover its operational costs. Current fees would leave the agency underfunded by about $1 billion per year.”

We will keep you updated, as more details come in.