IT companies will have to pay up to $10,000 for each H-1B visa - All Indian IT companies would be required to pay between $8,000 (roughly Rs. 5.2 lakhs) and $10,000 (roughly Rs. 6.6 lakhs) per H-1B visa from April 1 when the next annual H-1B visa filing session is scheduled to start.

The move is set to affect many IT companies. The new rule is not only because of the $4,000 new fee imposed on Indian IT companies under the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2016 which was signed into law by President Barack Obama, but it also takes into account the series of other fee that the Congress has added onto the H-1B visa application over the past one decade.

Notably the original H-1B visa application fee is just $325 (roughly Rs. 21,500). Beginning March 2005 another $500 (roughly Rs. 33,000) was added as Prevention and Detection Fee. Then there is an Employer Sponsorship fee under which companies having more than 25 employees have to pay $ 1,500 (roughly Rs. 99,000) per visa application.

In case of 25 employees, companies pay half the amount $750 (roughly Rs. 9,500). The money is meant to fund the training of US workers.

Obama on Saturday signed the bill into law. Now, the companies having more than 50 employees and more than 50 percent of employees that are on H1B or L1 Visa status would have to pay an additional $4,000 (roughly Rs. 2.6 lakhs) per H-1B visa applications. In the case of L1 visa it is $4,500 (roughly Rs. 2.9) and the Premium Processing Fee of $1,225 is extra.

Under this, US Citizenship and Immigration Services decided on the H-1B visa application within 15 business days.