H1B and L1 $2000 Fee increase effective from Aug 14th 2010

USCIS News: H1B and L1 $2000 Fee increase effective from Aug 14th 2010

USCIS had a conference call today to discuss the implementation of the H1B and L1 Fee increase by $2000. As most of you know, president Obama signed the fee increase into law last week Friday. The public law 111-230 signed by president will be in effect immediately. 

Summary of the implementation plan by USCIS for H1B and L1 fee increase:

• H1B and L1A & L1B petitions filed on or after Aug 14^th, 2010 that meets the following requirements of visa sponsor: “ Company having 50 or more employees in US and more than 50% of their employees are non-immigrant works on H1B and L1, L2  visas” will have to pay additional $2000 dollars.

• The visa fee hike applies to new H1B and L1 Petitons and transfers(transferring employers).
• USCIS is working to modify the I-129 Forms and other paperwork to facilitate the implementation of new visa fee increase public law 111-230.
• The law is in effect from August 14,2010  through September 30, 2014
• Employers have either include additional fee of $2000 if it applies to them or clearly write a document or cover letter stating why their company does not fall under the new rule. USCIS will look for this letter if there is no such letter, they will give RFE (request for evidence)

It is very unfortunate for the mid size IT companies and for big Indian IT giants like Wipro, TCS, Infosys and Cognizant.  Some say it is not fair trade policy, some say Americans needs jobs  and this is just a way to encourage these companies to hire more Americans to boost the US econom …. What do you think about this law ?

For more info read: Impact of H1B fee increase on Indian Companies.

News: H1B and L1 Fee increase by 2000 – Impact to Indian IT Companies

Recently few days ago senate passed a bill that says H1B visa fee increase by $2000… As I was reading economic times today,  they highlights the impact of the H1B and L1 fee increase to Indian software companies.  The tricky part is, American based companies like Microsoft and Intel are not impacted by this because they do not have  over 50% of temporary workers.

Summary of the impact to Indian Software companies :

• Nasscom reports, the increase will cost Indian Companies by $200 to $250 Million per year.
• As most of the Indian outsourcing companies have 70% to 80% of temporary workers on H1B and L1 visa, the H1B fee increase will heavily impact all these companies and especially like TCS, Infosys, and Wipro because they send around 10,000 professionals every year
• Indian IT Companies are not happy to pay for the border protection of US and say that it is not compliant with World Trade Organization fair practices.
• The biggest burden is companies have to deal with the cost for new applications, renewals and transfers. If you think of it, it is a huge cost.
• Infosys, Wipro and other stocks were slightly ( 0.3 %) down today with the news of H1B fee increase. Infosys already spent $16 million in visa expenses until now this year.

Still the bill is not yet completely passed and signed. It has to be passed by the House of Representatives. They plan to vote on this on tomorrow (Tuesday, August 10^th ). There is another bill related to this and House may consolidate the $701 million bill with the $600 million bill. We just have to wait and see.