"We will count all of your full-time and part-time employees when determining whether you must pay this fee. Employees of related entities will not count," USCIS said. "When calculating the percentage of your employees in H-1B or L-1 status, we will calculate based on the number of employees you have in the United States, regardless of whether they are paid through a US or foreign payroll," USCIS said. WASHINGTON: Flagship Indian IT companies would have to pay at least an additional $4,000 for every H-1B visa application under the new regulations that came into effect last December, according to details published today by a federal US agency.And those applying for L-1 visa petitions would have to pay $4,500 more than other US companies under the new law, which would be in effect till September 30, 2025.The H-1B visa is designed to allow US employers to recruit and employ foreign professionals in speciality occupations within the US while L-1 visas are available to employees of an international company with offices in both the US and abroad.Indian IT firms -- which have to incur an additional burden of about $400 million annually -- have called it "discriminatory", with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself raising this at the highest level.US federal Citizenship and Immigration Services ( USCIS ) posted the details of the increased fee on its website today.For H-1B petitioners, one "must pay the additional $4,000 fee" if the company employs 50 or more employees in the US and more than half of those are in H-1B, L-1A, or L-1B non-immigrant status.The figure increases to $4,500 for those applying for L-1 visas.The USCIS said the additional fees needs to be a paid in a separate cheque payable to the Department of Homeland Security.The federal agency also laid the parameters for counting the number of employees of the company.

Source: Times of India May 27, 2016 01:46 UTC