US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has increased the premium processing fee for non-immigrant visa applicants in another attempt by the Donald Trump administration to promote local hires.
The move may result in a short-term cost impact for IT Indian companies, according to experts, despite the firms ramping up their local hiring and offshoring projects elsewhere to overcome visa-related issues.
The filing fee for premium processing has been increased by close to 75 per cent — from $1,440 to $2,500 — for all filings except H2B and R1 applicants. The fee for H2B and R1 petitions has been hiked to $1,500.
Premium processing