US visa: Huge fee hikes for H-1B, EB-5 and other types from April 1, 2024

The United States of America has introduced a steep improve in charges for numerous classes of non-immigrant visas, reminiscent of H-1B, L-1, and EB-5, the preferred types for Indians. The fee hike, which is the primary since 2016, comes into drive from April 1, 2024.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that permits US firms to make use of overseas employees in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical experience. Technology firms rely on it to rent tens of hundreds of workers every year from international locations like India and China.

The EB-5 programme, launched by the US authorities in 1990, permits high-net-worth overseas traders to acquire a US visa for themselves and their households by investing a minimal of USD 500,000 in a US enterprise that helps create 10 jobs for American employees.

To come into drive from April 1, the brand new H-1B software visa fee, which is type I-129, has been elevated from USD 460 to USD 780 — a hike of almost 70 per cent. The H-1B registration will improve from USD 10 to USD 215, however from subsequent yr.

The fee for L-1 visas has been elevated from USD 460 to USD 1,385 (a hike of 200 per cent) and that of EB-5 visas, popularly generally known as “traders visas”, has jumped from USD 3,675 to USD 11,160 (additionally a hike of simply over 200 per cent), in keeping with a federal notification issued yesterday.

The L-1 visa is a non-immigrant visa class within the US that’s designed for intra-company transferees. It permits multinational firms to switch sure workers from their overseas places of work to work within the US briefly.

Costs and advantages for US authorities and visa candidates

The visa fee changes, in addition to modifications to the varieties and fee constructions utilized by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), would end in web prices, advantages, and switch funds, stated the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in its federal notification.

For the 10-year interval of research of the rule (FY 2024 by way of FY 2033), the DHS estimates the annualised web prices to the general public will probably be USD 157,005,952, discounted at 3 and 7 per cent.

Estimated whole web prices over 10 years will probably be USD 1,339,292,617 discounted at 3 per cent and USD 1,102,744,106 discounted at 7 per cent.

The DHS argued that the modifications within the remaining rule would additionally present a number of advantages to it and candidates/petitioners searching for immigration advantages.

For the federal government, the first advantages embody diminished administrative burdens and fee processing errors; elevated effectivity within the adjudicative course of; and the flexibility to higher assess the price of offering providers, which permits for better-aligned charges in future laws.

The main advantages to the candidates/petitioners embody diminished fee processing errors; elevated effectivity within the adjudicative course of; the simplification of the fee fee course of for some varieties; elimination of the USD 30 returned cheque fee; and for many candidates, restricted fee will increase and extra fee exemptions to scale back fee burdens.

In many classes, the federal notification has made a minor discount in visa software charges as effectively.