Washington, Aug. 6: The US Senate on Friday approved a substantial increase in application fees for H-1B and L1 visas, most sought after by Indian IT professionals, to fund a $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 majorly on these categories of visas to continue with their work in the US.
The Senate measure increases the visa fee to $ 2,000 per application on those companies that have less than 50 per cent of their employees as American citizens. During the debate, however, Senator John McCain wanted to fund the security along the Mexican border with the stimulus money.