H-1B visa application fee hiked, to hit Indian IT

Washington, Aug 7: In a huge blow to the Indian IT companies, the United States substantially hiked its application fees for H-1B and L1 visas.

The US senate on Friday, Aug 6 approved increase in application fees for H-1B and L1 visas to fund a 600 million dollar package to improve security along the Mexican border.

H-1B and L1 visas, most sought after by Indian IT professionals and top IT companies rely heavily on these category of visas to carry on with their work in America.

The visa fee has been increased to 2,000 dollars per application on those companies that have less than 50 percent of their employees as American citizens.

The legislation which was introduced in the Senate by democrats such as Senator Charles Schumer and Senator Claire McCaskill passed by unanimous consent.

"I prefer our source, which is from these companies which are not, as I say they are companies whose whole purpose is to bring people in on H-1B and the vast majority of them from other countries who go back to the other countries. That is a better funding source," Schumer said while making his remarks on the Senate floor.

OneIndia News