H-1B and L-1 employers who were subject to Public Law 111-230 and required to pay an additional filing fee of either $2,000 (H-1B) or $2,250 (L-1) do not need to pay these fees for petitions filed on or after Oct. 1, 2015. This additional fee only applied to certain companies with large numbers of H1B and/or L-1 workers and expired on Sept. 30, 2015 because the law that mandated them, Public Law 111-347, enacted on Jan. 2, 2011 (amending the original law, Public Law 111-230, enacted on Aug. 13, 2010), extended the fees only through Sept. 30, 2015.
The additional fees imposed under this law dramatically increased the cost of filing H-1B and L-1 petitions for those companies with more than 50 employees in the United States, where at least 50 percent of the employees were in H1B or L-1 status.
All other H-1B and L-1 fees, including the Base fee, Fraud Prevention and Detection Fee, and American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act of 1998 (ACWIA) Fee, when applicable, are still required. Petitions with incorrect fees may be rejected. Petitioners are reminded that USCIS prefers separate checks for each filing fee.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
