US judge temporarily halts proposed fee hike for H-1B, other visa applications

Judge Jeffrey White, a federal judge, has granted a preliminary injunction to stop the proposed across the board fee increase for a wide variety of visa applications. The revised fees were to come into effect from Friday, October 2, reports The Times of India.

Eight non-profit organisations, including the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, which provide a variety of immigration related services to low income applicants, had moved court. They had challenged all the fee increases on the grounds that these fees were proposed and issued under officials who were not properly appointed to their positions and therefore fee hike rules were unlawful. The officials concerned are Chad Wolf who is the Acting Secretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Kevin McAleenan, former Acting Secretary, the Times of India report said.

The lawsuit also contended that the fee increases, such as citizenship application fee and asylum fees, harm the most vulnerable in the society, the report added.

According to the TOI,the basic application fee for an H-1B visa was set to increase to $555 from the existing $460 – a hike of nearly 21%. The base filing fees for L-1 visas (used for intra company transfers) was to rise significantly by 75% to $805. Spouses of H-1B workers (holding an H-4 dependent visa) would have had to shell out $550 to obtain a work permit, this is a rise of 34%. Fees for applying for citizenship were proposed to rise sharply by 83% from $640 to $1,170. An unprecedented asylum application fee of $50 was also introduced.