The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is expanding the 9-11 Response and Biometric Entry-Exit fee to cover H-1B and L-1 visa extension petitions filed by certain employers. Currently, the fee is charged only in specific initial and change-of-employer cases.
This new rule is set to be published in the Federal Register on Aug. 10 and will take effect 30 days after publication. The additional fee is $4,000 for an H-1B petition and $4,500 for an L-1 petition.
According to reports, the additional fee applies to employers with at least 50 employees in the U.S. with more than 50% of their U.S. workforce on H-1B or L-1 visas. For these employers, the fee will now apply not only to initial H-1B and L-1 petitions and change-of-employer petitions, but also to extension-of-stay petitions for existing workers. Immigration law firm Fragomen said an amended petition that does not request an extension of stay will remain exempt from this particular fee.
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The law firm Chugh LLP said that the final rule does not increase the existing fee but expands it to same-employer extensions. It confirmed that qualifying employers must pay $4,000 for H-1B and $4,500 for L-1 petitions.
Reports also mentioned this fee is not new. Congress created the fee in December 2015 as a successor to an earlier supplemental fee. The money was intended to support biometric entry-exit programs that had been mandated for national security purposes. Currently, the fee applies in specific circumstances to employers that meet the conditions. The latest move expands those circumstances.
Previously, a qualifying employer generally paid the fee when filing for an initial grant of H-1B or L-1 status or when changing the employer of an H-1B or L-1 worker. The new rule adds all H-1B and L-1 extension-of-stay petitions filed by covered employers.
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Fragomen said the regulation “will also apply the fee to all H-1B and L-1 extension of stay petitions filed by subject employers.”
“The new regulation interprets the fee to apply to an expanded set of circumstances, irrespective of whether the fraud fee is required in the filing. The rule continues to require the 9-11 fee for petitions seeking initial grant of H-1B or L-1 status and for change-of-employer petitions in those two visa categories and will also apply the fee to all H-1B and L-1 extension of stay petitions filed by subject employers. Amended petitions without an extension request will be exempt from the fee,” stated Fragomen.