The Biden administration is reportedly planning to postpone the anticipated ‘final’ regulation to increase fees for various US visa applications, including the H-1B cap visas.
The final regulation is now deferred to April 2024, Times of India reported, citing unnamed industry sources.
The deferral offers relief to US employers hiring H-1B visa holders, as the application fees were projected to rise by 70 percent, reaching $780.
The fee hike will impact sponsoring employers required to E-register and file detailed H-1B visa applications for lottery-selected individuals.
The final regulation was expected this month or at the latest by January 2024, the report said.
Typically, after the regulation is issued, a 60-day window for public comments opens, followed by a subsequent period before the regulation takes effect.
The initial proposal (Notice of Proposed Rule Making – NPRM), unveiled in January 2023, had suggested significant fee hikes, particularly for non-immigrant H-1B visas.
The proposed E-registration fee increase, from $10 to $215, aimed to deter misuse of the lottery system.
With the delay in publishing the final regulation, the H-1B cap applications for the 2024-25 season are unlikely to be subject to higher fees.
E-registrations for the annual H-1B cap lottery typically occur in March.
The NPRM also proposed a 19 percent increase in citizenship (naturalisation) application fees, from $640 to $760.
The most substantial hikes were suggested for EB-5 investors in the investment-linked green card program. Initial I-526 petitions were set to increase by 204 percent to $11,160, and I-829 petitions to remove conditions on permanent resident status were to see a 148 percent hike to $9,535.
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