Biden admin proposes higher US visa fees

New Delhi: The US administration has proposed significantly higher fees for many non-immigrant employment-based visas such as H1B. These fees are borne by the US employer and will increase the cost of hiring immigrant employees. Those seeking investment-linked green cards, will now have to cough up USD11,160 for the initial application itself – a rise of 204%.

The fee-proposals released by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Tuesday are contained in an exhaustive document running into 469 pages. However, the fee hike will not be introduced immediately.

As per the administrative procedural requirement there is a 60-day period for inviting public comments, the entire process running up to the actual implementation of the revised fees could take a few months. Nearly 96% of the funding is derived by USCIS from such filing fees. "The proposed fee rule is the result of a comprehensive fee review at USCIS. This review determined that the agency's current fees, which have remained unchanged since 2016, fall far short of recovering the full cost of agency operations," according to statement. "This proposed rule allows USCIS to more fully recover operating costs for the first time in six years and will support the Administration's effort to rebuild the legal immigration system," said USCIS director Jaddou.

Costs for US employers who sponsor immigration employees will increase, if the fee proposal goes through. Since 2019, sponsoring US employers are required to electronically register the beneficiaries (employees whom they wish to hire under the H1B route). H1B cap applications are then required to be filed only for those beneficiaries selected in the lottery process. The E-registration fee at a mere USD10 led to some malpractices, it is now proposed to be hiked to USD215. At the second stage, the filing fee for H1B applications is proposed to increase to USD780 from USD460 – a 70% increase.