US Senate passes bill increasing H-1B/L-1 fees to fund border security on the US Mexican border

The US Senate on Thursday, August 05, 2010 passed a bill to add $600 million to improve border security on the US Mexican border. To help pay for the $600 million to improve border security, the Senate approved increasing the filing and fraud prevention and detection fee of H-1B visas by $2,000 and L visas by $2,250 for Employers who have more than 50 employees in the US, if more than 50% of their employees are on L or H-1B visa respectively. The filing fee increase ends on September 30,2014.

The H-1B filing fees for affected Employers will increase from the present $2,320 to $4,320 and the L-1 filing fee will increase from the present $820 to $3,070. 

The Senate measure was unanimously approved on Thursday, August 05, 2010 in a night session. The House may vote on the Senate version of the bill on Tuesday, August 10,2010. If the House passes the Senate version of the Bill, it will be ready for President Barack Obama to sign into law.  

To read more about the H-1B/L-1 fee increase, please see news reports in regard to the new Senate Bill at Computerworld, MSNBC & CNN.  

We will keep you updated on further developments in regard to this Senate Bill.