When United States president Barack Obama visits India in November it’s expected that India will raise the issue of the recent hefty increase to the fees of visas.

The nearly $2,000 increase in the fee is expected to raise over $550 million over five years, and this money will be used to increase security and prevent illegal immigration over the United States-Mexico border.

The increase in fees means that Indian IT companies will have to pay up to $250 million per year in order to pay for the over 50,000 of H-1B and L-1 visas, not including the amount of visa renewals that also have to be paid for to send workers to the United States.

The fee is seen as an “economic barrier” that will affect both India and the United States, according to Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma. “Many of the developed countries are looking inward for fiscal consolidation. Economic barriers such as visa restrictions and the hike in visa fees will negatively affect the global recovery,” he said to reporters shortly after the fee hike was announced.

Many foreign technology companies have over half of their United States-based employees on similar visas. According to Sharma, he wrote a letter to United States trade representative Ron Kirk saying that, “Our concern is serious and well-founded – given the industry’s contributions globally – and it has been registered.”

According to several India officials and industry experts, the visa-fee increase is a violation of World Trade Organization regulations. India’s commerce secretary, Rahul Khullar, said, “We have sent a clear message to the world that the visa fee hike is WTO-incompatible. The United States cannot pass a law which clearly hurt’s India’s interests and then realistically expects us to accommodate their commercial interests.”

A Press Release on May 24, 2010 from the US Department of State advises that as of June 4th US Non Immigrant Visa Government Application Fees will be increased. Of course our legal fees remain the same!

The statement from the Department of State is reproduced below:

On May 20, 2010, the Department of State published an interim final rule in the Federal Register to increase nonimmigrant visa application processing fees, also called the Machine-Readable Visa (MRV) fee, and Border Crossing Card (BCC) fees. The interim final rule also establishes a tiered structure with separate fees for different nonimmigrant visa categories. The new fees are scheduled to go into effect on June 4, 2010.

The Department is increasing fees to ensure sufficient resources to cover the rising cost of processing nonimmigrant visas. This increase applies both to nonimmigrant visas placed in passports and to border crossing cards issued to certain applicants in Mexico.

The new, tiered fee structure was created to cover the higher unit costs for processing certain categories of nonimmigrant visas that are more complicated and require more in-depth consideration than most other categories of nonimmigrant visas. The Department is required to recover, as far as possible, the cost of processing nonimmigrant visas through the collection of the application fees. For a number of reasons, including new security enhancements, the $131 fee set on January 1, 2008 no longer covers the current, actual cost of processing nonimmigrant visas. Under the new schedule of fees, applicants for all visas that are not petition-based, including B1/B2 tourist and business visitor visas and all student and exchange visitor (F, M and J) visas, will pay a fee of $140.

Applicants for petition-based visas will pay an application fee of $150. These categories include:
· H visa for temporary workers and trainees
· L visa for intracompany transferees
· O visa for aliens with extraordinary ability
· P visa for athletes, artists and entertainers
· Q visa for international cultural exchange visitors
· R visa for religious occupations

The application fee for K visas for fiancé(e)s of U.S. citizens will be $350. The fee for E visas for treaty-traders and treatyinvestors will be $390.

Concurrent with the publication of the interim final rule, the Department will also release additional cost of service data and re-open the public comment period for an additional 60 days. At the conclusion of that period, the Department will consider public comments and publish a final rule. To view the interim final rule, please go to 75 Federal Register 28194. Comments may be submitted via www.regulations.gov.

This fee increase information may also be found on the Department of State, Travel.state.gov internet site, on the Fees for Visa Services webpage, and also on U.S. Embassy and Consulate websites abroad. Only the fees for nonimmigrant visas will change on June 4. Proposed fee changes related to U.S. passports, immigrant visas, and other consular services are still under review.

May 1st was International Workers’ Day in the United States. Instead of celebrating or recognizing the contributions of immigrants to the country, many activists were far too busy protesting the new immigration law that was signed in Arizona just recently.This law has stirred up much controversy and we have previously blogged about it here.

In Los Angeles, over 50,000 people protested and reiterated their demand for President Obama to deal with

immigration reform before tacking other issues like climate change and the federal budget.

The city council of Flagstaff, Arizona, has filed suit against the new law in an attempt to keep it from being passed this coming July.

If the law does come into effect on July 29th of this year, it will make it essentially illegal to be in the state “illegally”, creating a crime under state law which is a felony. As well, previously police could inquire about immigration status only if a person was arrested or detained, whereas, some are saying, that if the law passes they can ask anyone if there is a “suspicion”, creating worries about racism and racial profiling.

Now the term “suspicion” and other terms relating to how and when a police officer can inquire about someone’s immigration status in Arizona has come under the microscope of legal pundits. For a very informative analysis of the proposed legal limitations under the Arizona law, check out Mark Gollom’s column Reality Check,  posted on the CBC website here.

Mark, or “Marky” as he is known in some circles, correctly points out that Immigration law is generally within Federal and not state jurisdiction. The Obama administration therefore may have just cause to take action agaist Arizona for overstepping boundaries, or can I say crossing legal borders?

It’s currently estimated that 12 million undocumented immigrants live in the United States.

While the law was amended by the Governor last week to prevent a person’s race from being a reason for the questioning, it did not do much to dissuade any fears that the country’s large population of Latinos will be targeted.

An estimated 20,000 people also protested in cities like Dallas and Chicago, and one congressman from Illinois was arrested during protests in that city. Smaller similar protests were held country- wide. Many notable Latino figures from celebrities, civil rights leaders politicians and athletes headlined the protests.

“What we are witnessing today is the blatant targeting of an entire American population, Latinos,” said civil rights leader Dolores Huerta during one of the protests.

The same government is also garnering criticism for pulling funding from any Arizona school that offers classes that “promote the overthrow of the United States or are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group”. Another little-known fact about the legislation is that teachers with thick accents or accents that are not “grammatically correct”` will no longer be allowed to teach English classes – even though Arizona recruited many teachers from Latin America to teach Spanish in the 1990s. In 2000, most of those teachers switched to teaching English after voters decided instruction should only be offered in English.

Sounds very “Orwellian” to me.

Over the weekend, thousands of people all over the United States rallied in cities like Las Vegas and Chicago demanding US immigration reform.

Senate Majority Leader and Representative Shelley Berkley told the crowd that immigration reform was a top priority and that her vision of it would include more border security and a guest worker program for seasonal workers. Another Representative said that he had introduced legislation that added a path to legal status for illegal immigrants.

The Reform Immigration for America campaign has been holding events like this to encourage Americans to demand immigration reform from their representatives.

During the events, the chair of the Reform Immigration for America campaign said, “They want action now from their senators in Washington, and they are rallying, marching, chanting, praying, lobbying and calling their elected leaders out until they get it. This movement will not rest until the President and the leadership of both houses of Congress have fulfilled their promises to fix our broken immigration system this year. ”

The campaign is putting pressure on lawmakers in the United States and already has the support of many officials and senators

The mission statement of the Reform Immigration for America campaign says that immigration reform is “a common-sense solution to our broken immigration system that strengthens equal opportunity and the rule of law, treats hardworking immigrant families with respect and dignity, and moves all communities and families in America forward together.”

Another major component is that better wages, working conditions and labour protections are put in place to prevent employers from cheating immigrants.

The immigration system in the United States has been called “broken”, and fixing it is a huge undertaking. There are often frightening immigration raids and families can be separated for a long time because of out-dated laws. The laws are also difficult to enforce, making illegal US  immigration easier for those looking to live and work in the United States.

This week reports from American authorities surfaced that many Haitians have been entering the United States from Canada since January’s devastating earthquake. More specifically, over 120 Haitians have been caught illegally crossing at the Vermont-Quebec border, usually in the middle of the night and on foot.

The record number of Haitians caught crossing the border include men, women and children and many of them have received the assistance of traffickers.

The United States Border Patrol has also stated that most of the Haitians were traveling to cities like New York and Miami, where there are large Haitian communities and where they likely have family. Some have also lived in Canada for years, after being ordered deported from the United States back to Haiti and instead fleeing to Canada.

President Obama made a decision to grant temporary protected status to Haitians living illegally in the United States after the earthquake – so they would not be deported back to the country that was in shambles. It’s something that many speculate the smugglers would have told the Haitians trying to cross the border, but not that the temporary protected status only applies to those who were already in the United States during the earthquake, not anyone who tries to illegally enter the country afterwards.

Some have also speculated the reason the Haitians are so desperate to cross and risk the stiff penalties is that without some kind of status they cannot sponsor their families to come over. Others had lost most of their families and might have had a few relatives remaining in the United States.

Sometimes immigration law can be fun and informative.  Enjoy the Video.