US to temporarily suspend special payment programme for H-1B visas
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that in order to clear a backlog of regular H-1B visa applications, it is suspending for six months a programme. (Reuters File Photo)
In a significant development for Silicon Valley and Indian IT firms and engineers, the Donald Trump administration on Friday suspended “premium processing” of H-1B visas — a fast lane used by US companies to circumvent long waiting periods to get their petitions for high-skilled foreign workers approved, or rejected, for an extra fee.
Under “premium processing”, a company can request an expedited decision on its petition for an extra fee of $1,225 per application within 15 days and won’t have to wait for months to find out in the regular course. It is used widely by large companies such as Facebook and Microsoft, sometimes for all their applications.
Credit: hindustantimes.com