WASHINGTON, AUG 6
The US Senate today approved a substantial increase in application fees for H-1B and L1 visas most sought after by Indian IT professionals to fund a USD 600 million emergency package to improve security along the porous Mexican border.
The proposed massive increase in H-1B and L1 visa application fee would primarily affect the top Indian IT companies who rely on these categories of visas to continue with their work in the US.
The Senate measure increases the visa fee to USD 2,000 per application on those companies that have less than 50 per cent of their employees as American citizens.
“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”, Senator Charles Schumer from New York said in his remarks on the Senate floor.
Schumer along with his other democratic colleagues including Senator Claire McCaskill introduced the legislation.
