PTI: The proposed changes in the issuing of H-1B visas, the highly sought after US work permits, will badly affect the Indian IT firms which depend heavily on these work visas. The changes under the Comprehensive Immigration Reform put a curb on use of H-1B visa for those companies which have a higher ratio of work force under this category.         

Most of the Indian companies will fall under this classification. The companies will also have to shell out more fee to get a H-1B visa, if the draft legislation is cleared by the Congress and is signed into law by the US President.         

The US, according to the 17-page outline of the 'Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernisation Act of 2013', will crack down on abusers of the H-1B system by requiring the dependent employers to pay significantly higher wages and fees than normal users of the programme.         

If the employer has 50 or more employees, and more than 30 per cent but less than 50 per cent are H-1B or L-1 employees (who do not have a green card petition pending), the employer will need to pay a $5,000 fee per additional worker in either of these two statuses, the outline of the bill said.         

In case the employer has 50 or more employees and more than 50 per cent of these workers are H-1B or L-1 employees who do not have a green card petition pending, then the companies will have to pay a $10,000 fee per additional worker in either of these two statuses. As such, large Indian IT companies like TCS, Wipro and Infosys will have to pay $10,000 for each additional H-1B employee they would be hiring.