| Processing Fee Now
an Effective Requirement for H1B Applicants Foreign nationals seeking HIB visas have no choice but to pay a $1,000 processing fee under an accelerated 15-day review process if they want to qualify before the quota runs out this year, according to Karen Weinstock, a partner at Siskind Susser PC, an Atlanta immigration firm. She anticipates that this year?s 65,000 quota will be reached by February or March. A recovering U.S. economy is prompting new demand for the visas sought by professionals, including engineers, physicians and teachers with signed contracts, but the number of available visas is only a third of what was available last year. "The (15-day) premium program provides a faster process for review by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, but it cannot guarantee that an application will be processed before the 2004 quota is reached," Ms. Weinstock said in a recent telephone interview. The U.S. Congress has capped the number of visas in 2004 at 65,000, down from 195,000 in 2003. A backlog of 20,000 cases not handled in 2003 also is to cut into the number of visas that will be issued this year, she said. U.S. free trade agreements signed with Chile and Singapore also reduce the number of the quota because 6,800 visas have been reserved for applicants from those countries. Ms. Weinstock may be reached at (404) 239-9299. Source: By Gail Rockburne for GlobalAtlanta | ||
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