Cost of work visas surges, upping the ante for multitude of California's small businesses

When his entertainment industry clients want to hire foreign actors for a film shoot, Los Angeles immigration attorney Ally Bolour has to time the visa filings carefully, to secure their entry close to the production start date while meeting the tight schedules of performers. Often, there's little wiggle room.

Now, Bolour's clients not only must pay more for visa filings but also face a potentially longer wait. Bolour usually applies under expedited "premium processing." That fee went up 12% to $2,805 while the new turnaround time was lengthened from two to three weeks.

This is one example of what California businesses face in the wake of the U.S. government's sweeping visa fee increases, some of them astronomical, and other related changes that took effect April 1.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says the fee hikes are necessary to keep operating and prevent its current backlog of cases from piling to stop the fee increases from taking place.