Starting October 2, 2020, employers with a high proportion of H-1B and L-1 employees will have to make additional border security fee payments when petitioning for these employees.
Currently, if a company with more than 50 employees has at least 50% of its workforce in H-1B or L-1 status, USCIS imposes a $4,000 fee on initial H-1B petitions and a $4,500 fee on initial L-1 petitions. Under the new rule, USCIS will also impose this fee for each H-1B or L-1 extension petition, when the fraud prevention and detection fee is not collected. Practically, this means that the fee will be required whenever an employee’s status is extended. Employers should note that amended petitions that do not request an extension will not be subject to this additional fee.
As this rule goes into effect on October 2, affected companies have a small window of opportunity to file an extension petition, or an amendment petition with an extension request, under the current fee structure. Companies can file extension petitions or an amendment petition with an extension request now, for all their cases that are due for an extension in the next six months. Employers should keep in mind that any material change can qualify as the basis for an H-1B amendment petition, and that extensions can be triggered as part of the amendment application.
For specific questions, please reach out to an ILBSG attorney today.
Click here to see a full summary of the final rule.