Congress doubles H-1B fee to $4,000
The visa fee must be paid with the initial application and on any extension.
The visa fee must be paid with the initial application and on any extension.
A special $2,000 H-1B fee imposed on large Indian offshore firms but allowed to lapse may return in the spending bill being negotiated by Congress.
Under today's prevailing wage rules, H-1B workers can be paid well less than half that amount in some U.S. regions.
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), a vocal critic of the use of H-1B workers at Disney, introduced legislation this week to reduce the H-1B visa cap by nearly 25%.
Not only visa holders would be affected. People traveling to the U.S. to attend, for instance, a technology conference as a business visitor under the B-1 visa could be excluded by the ban.
Apple says workforce diversity "inspires creativity and innovation," but one of Apple's major contractors, Infosys, is far from diverse.
A top White House official told House lawmakers this week that the replacement of U.S. workers by H-1B visa holders is troubling and not supposed to happen. But it is hard to tell whether the administration will do anything about it. The signals are mixed.