The American dream is set to become a little costlier. Ahead of the New Year, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced a hike in the visa application fees for student and H-1B visas along with other categories. 

Increase in Visa Processing and Fees

As the US visa processing times are significantly coming down, the hike in the visa application fees comes as a surprise for many aspiring applicants. The premium processing fees increased significantly for forms I-129, I-140, I-539, and I-765. Specifically, the premium processing fee for I-129, catering to nonimmigrant worker visas, has gone up by 12% to $2,805. This marks a climb from the previous $2,500.

Furthermore, Form I-539 now charges premium processing fees of $1,965 instead of $1,750. Likewise, the fee structure for Form I-765 is hiked to $1,685 from the preceding $1,500.

Hike in F-1 Visa Application Fees

The F-1 visa lets individuals towards academic or language pursuits at accredited institutions in the US. This visa not only opens doors to fulfilling educational dreams but also offers a promise of optional practical training (OPT) post-study, a bridge to real-world work experiences.

Apart from the hike in the US visa application fees, the USCIS can now also have a higher scrutiny for student visa applicants. This is being done to eradicate fraudulent applications. Another significant change is that applicants for F, M, and J visas must now enter passport information when creating their profiles and setting up their visa appointments.

Also Read: Air India Unveils Sleek Interiors of India’s First Airbus A350 900 in Delhi 

Despite the US visa application fees likely to increase, applications are still rising. The US Mission processed a million visas in 2023 from India alone and this number is only expected to go up in 2024. As the US visa processing times are improving, more and more people are fulfilling their American dream. 

Not just this, many airlines like Air India are also banking on increased travel and offering nonstop flights to USA. If your US visa application is accepted, you can book your itinerary by making use of the ongoing Indian Eagle flight deals and fulfil your American dream. 

Do you think the hike in the visa application fees will further bring down the US visa processing times? Will the number of visas being processed in India cross the million mark in 2024? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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A steep hike in the visa application fee for employment-based visas, including H-1B and L visas, is on cards. This US visa fee hike proposal was put forth (in a 469-page document) by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in a bid to replenish the immigration agency’s funds (that were hit during the pandemic period) and also manage the operating costs.  

If approved by the Biden administration, the application fee for H-1B visas for ‘high-skilled foreign workers’ would rise by 70% to $780 while the percentage of fee hike for an L1 visa for ‘intra-company transfer’ would be a whopping 201% (from $460 to $1,385). For US companies, the cost of sponsoring foreign employees is likely to get higher as the employers filing Form I-129 (for nonimmigrant workers) and I-140 (for employer-sponsored green cards) will have to bear an additional $600 (under the Asylum program fee).

Also Read: US L1 Visa Application Guide

However, it is unlikely that the US visa fee hike would be implemented immediately as the proposal comes with a 60-day comment period, post which the received public comments will be reviewed and a final decision will be announced.

The pre-registration fee for H-1B visas will also go up to $215 from the current $10. This move to increase visa fees is expected to impact Indians the most as Indian nationals account for nearly 75% of H-1B visa receivers. A large number of Indian professionals are working at US IT organizations while many more dream of flying to San Francisco and other tech hubs to land their dream jobs. 

An increase in the fee for EB-5 visas (Investor Visa Program) from $3,675 to $11,160 (a 204% hike) is also proposed. Moreover, applicants seeking to upgrade their temporary visas to permanent (green card) will have to shell out $1,225 if the revised visa fee takes effect.

USCIS, in a news release, explains that this US visa fee hike will allow revenue recovery from its major income source (which is the filing fee) besides supporting the timely processing of visa applications and thus, preventing the accumulation of cases in the future. It also stated that the current fee structure has remained unchanged since 2016 (USCIS reviews the visa fee structure every two years).

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Good news for US visa seekers in India. In a bid to minimize excruciatingly long visa processing times, United States is planning to include more visa categories in the eligibility criteria for the US visa interview waiver, commonly referred to as the drop box facility. This move is likely to bring a sigh of relief to individuals seeking student, work, and tourist visas to USA.  

The drop box eligibility will soon expand to the applicants of US student and work visas along with business and tourist visas. US B1 (business) and B2 (tourist) visa holders looking for a renewal of their visas that expired within the last four years will be eligible for drop box, a flexibility that exempts visa renewal applicants from the interview process when met with certain criteria. Earlier, drop box appointments in the B1 and B2 categories were limited to renewal applications that didn’t go beyond one year of the visa expiry. 

The US visa interview waiver facility will also be applicable for work (H & L categories) and student (may include F, M, & J categories) visa applications from individuals holding any US visa, regardless of whether it is active or expired (and when it expired). This means, if you have had a US student visa or tourist visa earlier and are now planning to fly to USA for work-related reasons, you may be entitled to an exemption from the in-person interview requirement when applying for a work visa this time. You can just submit all the necessary documents at the Visa Application Center (VAC) and be done with the process. However, if your biometrics weren’t collected during the earlier visa process, you will have to do it this time.

Also Read: US L1 Visa Application Guide

The average wait time for most US visa categories has significantly increased post-pandemic and it ranges from 300 to 900 days in the busiest Indian cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Hyderabad among others. However, several measures taken over the past few months such as adding more members to consular staff and sending drop box cases to other cities for processing have helped ease the US visa wait times greatly.

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