Indian IT firms to pay over $8,000 per H-1B visa

Almost all Indian IT companies would pay between $8,000 and $10,000 per H-1B visa from April 1 when the next annual H-1B visa filing session starts, thus making it quite unsustainable economically for them.

This is not only because of the $4,000 new fee imposed on Indian IT companies under the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2016 which was signed into law by President Barack Obama, but also due to the series of other fee that the Congress has added onto the H-1B visa application over the past one decade.

Notably the original H-1B visa application fee is just $325. Beginning March 2005 another $500 was added as Prevention and Detection Fee. Then there is an Employer Sponsorship fee under which companies having more than 25 employees have to pay $ 1,500 per visa application. In case of 25 employees, companies pay half the amount $750. This is meant to fund the training of US workers. As per the bill , companies having more than 50 employees and more than 50 per cent of employees that are on H1B or L1 Visa status would have to pay an additional $4,000 per H-1B visa applications.