Over 200,000 people have opted to pay the $100,000 H-1B visa application fee in order to receive faster processing of their applications, said US Homeland Security Secretary Markeayne Mullin on Tuesday. Speaking at a Senate hearing related to his department, Mullin stated that paying the additional fee had allowed applicants to have the applications processed in roughly 15 days.
“We had 286,000 applicants a year to date for the H-1B visas. Out of those, over 200,000 of them paid the $100,000 to be able to come in, because it allows us to process them in a little bit faster manner. In fact, when we do that, we’re able to process them in about 15 days, because we’re able to throw stuff out,” Mullin said in response to a question from Maine Senator Susan Collins.
Mullin added that the rest of the roughly 80,000 applicants had to go through a process lasting approximately 7.5 months in order to gain an exemption to the visa application fee.
Mullin’s responses came after Senator Collins highlighted how the $100,000 H1B visa application fee had made it harder for a hospital in rural Maine to hire a surgeon. Collins urged Mullin to consider exemptions to the visa fee where a rural community was able to demonstrate that no other medical professionals were available.
“While I can understand why the administration might consider assigning fees to H-1B visas in the tech area, or other sectors, where there’s a significant domestic workforce, that’s not what we’re talking about when it’s medical providers for rural areas. I want to give you an example of a hospital in Presque Isle, Maine, that’s in northern Maine, very close to where I grew up, and recently this rural hospital was forced to pay the $100,000 H-1B fee for a much-needed surgeon,” Senator Collins pointed out. Mullin added that a specific carve out would be difficult to deliver.
In September last year, the Trump administration unveiled the $100,000 H1B visa application fee in an attempt to make it uneconomical for U.S. companies to hire foreign workers over US-born talent. The visas are granted for a period of three years and can be renewed for a period of another three years. By law, the number of H1B visas granted every year is capped at 65,000, with an additional 20,000 visas granted to those with advanced degrees.
Over 70% of approved H1B visas go to professionals from India.