Congress Axes Amendment To Triple H-1B Visa FeesCongress Axes Amendment To Triple H-1B Visa Fees

Looks like Congress will remove from a spending bill a controversial amendment that would've more than tripled fees paid by employers for each H-1B visa applicant and created a new scholarship program for U.S. students pursuing tech-related degrees.

U.S. House of Representatives and Senate conferees hammering out compromises for a $150-billion-plus appropriations bill have dropped from its final conference report an amendment that would've hiked H-1B visas fees to $5,000 from the current $1,500.

H-1B visas are the most common visa sought by employers to bring foreign technology professionals into the U.S. to work temporarily.

The additional $3,500 that employers would've been charged for each H-1B visa had been earmarked to fund scholarship programs for U.S. students, including the proposed merit-based American Competitiveness Scholarship.

That new scholarship program would've enabled the National Science Institute to award qualified American students with scholarships of up to $15,000 annually to pursue degrees in computer science, mathematics, engineering, nursing and medicine.

The dropped Grassley-Sanders Amendment, co-sponsored by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), had been passed by the Senate twice before -- in May as part of Congress' ill-fated comprehensive immigration reform bill, and just last month as part of its version of the labor, health and human services and education appropriations bill.

Raising the cap on H-1B visas -- along with many other assorted proposals, including H-1B anti-abuse, anti-fraud provisions, and changes in green-card processes and policies, were all part of controversial and comprehensive immigration reform legislation that Congress had been considering earlier this year.