IMMIGRATION & BUSINESSUSCIS Springs Unseasonable Costs and Demands on American Employers
With spring approaching, U.S. businesses that sponsor noncitizen workers for employment‐based immigration benefits are accustomed to weathering seasonal changes. Most employers are likely ready for the initial FY 2025 H 1B lottery registration season. American businesses, however, now face particularly inclement headwinds stirred up by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) component tasked with deciding immigration‐benefits requests.
With spring approaching, U.S. businesses that sponsor noncitizen workers for employment‐based immigration benefits are accustomed to weathering seasonal changes. Most employers are likely ready for the initial FY 2025 H‑1B lottery registration season. But beyond the usual H‑1B registration pressures, these are the “[immigration] times that try [employer’s] souls.”
American businesses now face particularly inclement headwinds stirred up by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) component tasked with deciding immigration‐benefits requests. Here are the latest USCIS tempests:
Increased Premium Processing Fees
Effective February 26, 2024, the agency (with congressional authorization) imposed higher, inflation‐adjusted premium processing fees that must be filed to expedite an application. For example, premium processing of:
· Form I‑129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, jumps from $2,500 to $2,805 for most temporary work visa categories, and
· Form I‑539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status, rises from $1,750 to $1,965 for students, exchange visitors, and dependents of noncitizens in work‐visa status, and
· Form I‑765, Application for Employment Authorization, scales from $1,500 to $1,685 for students requesting pre‐and post‐completion optional practical training (OPT) or a 24‐month STEM OPT extension.
Increased Standard Filing Fees
Effective April 1, 2024, a USCIS final rule increases standard filing fees on employment‐based nonimmigrant petitions (I‑129s) and immigrant petitions (I‑140s). The increase in fees for two of the most heavily used nonimmigrant work visa categories is substantial: H‑1B petitions (+70 percent, from $460 to $780) and L‑1 petitions (+201 percent, from $460 to $1,385, except for small employers and nonprofits). Although filing fees for immigrant petitions increase only 2 percent (to $715), Form I‑485 green card applications to adjust status to legal permanent residence jump 26 percent (from $1,140 to $1,440 for persons 14 and older, if not requiring biometric screening).
Added to the base fees for I‑129s and I‑140s is a $600 “Asylum Program Fee” (except that businesses with twenty‐five or fewer employees must pay only a $300 surcharge, and nonprofits need not pay this added fee). The final rule is effective on April 1, just in time for H‑1B petitions submitted on behalf of beneficiaries selected in the FY 2025 lottery. For next year’s H‑1B registrations (opening in March 2025), the fee will jump from $10 to $215—an increase of 2,050 percent.
