Friday's changes to the prized H-1B visas, which included a new $100,000 fee, rattled the tech industry and left US companies scrambling to figure out the implications.
Hasty clarifications from the White House that the new charge would be a one-off payment rather than the annual fee announced by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Friday only added to the uncertainty.
The fee change rattled students like Kashyap, who hoped to get into an American university and from there the US jobs market.
Kashyap, a 21-year-old from the southern Indian tech hub of Bengaluru, had pictured himself going to a top-tier American university, with Stanford his goal.
"Back when the fee was lower, it was still something that you could pin hopes on, it would be easier to convert the student visa to an H-1B," Kashyap told AFP.
"I am very disappointed... my main dream is derailed as things stand now," he said.
H-1B visas allow companies to sponsor foreign workers with specialised skills --- such as scientists, engineers, and computer programmers -- to work in the United States, initially for three years but extendable to six.
The United States awards 85,000 H-1B visas per year on a lottery system, with India accounting for around three-quarters of the recipients.
Lutnick detailed the new measure as he stood beside Donald Trump in the Oval Office, where the US president also introduced a $1 million "gold card" residency programme he had previewed months earlier.
Several leading companies quickly advised their employees holding H-1B visas not to leave the country while they figured out the implications. Some who had already boarded planes disembarked for fear they might not be allowed to re-enter.
- The American dream -
Data released by the US Department of Homeland Security showed there were 422,335 Indian students in the United States in 2024, an increase of 11.8 percent on the year before.
India's IT industry association Nasscom said soon after Friday's initial announcement that it was concerned by the new visa measures.
It said "business continuity" at technology companies would be disrupted, and was quick to point out how Indian IT firms contributed to the US economy and were "by no means" a security threat.
Shashwath VS, a 20-year-old chemical engineering student in Bengaluru, said the new fee was too high for companies to think about sponsoring a foreign candidate.
"I will now explore other countries... going to the US was a priority for me, but not anymore," Shashwath said.
He said many like him might try to find places elsewhere, such as Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Indians, he said, "contribute significantly to the American economy -- be it students who go there or people who work there".
"So they (the US) will also be hit, in one way or the other."
- Immigration crackdown -
Trump has had the H-1B programme in his sights since his first term in office, and the current visa iteration has become the latest move in a major immigration crackdown in his second term.
Silicon Valley companies rely on Indian workers who either relocate to the United States or come and go between the two countries.
India's own vast outsourcing industry has also depended on the work permits for decades, even though that has softened in recent years.
Industry leader Tata Consultancy Services alone received approval for more than 5,000 H-1B visas in the first half of the 2025 fiscal year.
Sahil, a 37-year-old senior manager at an India-based consultancy firm, returned from the United States last year after living there on an H-1B visa for almost seven years.
"I can tell every second or third person in the IT sector dreams of settling in the US or visiting to work," he said.
"We will see fewer Indians migrating to the US in the future. That possibly means those people will now start looking at other countries."
White House says $100,000 H-1B visa fee to be one-time payment
Washington (AFP) Sept 20, 2025 -
The White House issued a major clarification Saturday to its new H-1B visa policy that had rattled the tech industry, saying a $100,000 fee will be a "one-time" payment imposed only on new applicants.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, in announcing the major fee increase on Friday, said it would be paid annually, and would apply to people seeking a new visa as well as renewals.
But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a clarification on Saturday, hours before the new policy was to go into effect.
"This is NOT an annual fee. It's a one-time fee that applies... only to new visas, not renewals, and not current visa holders," she said in a social media post.
The executive order, which is likely to face legal challenges, comes into force Sunday at 12:01 am US Eastern time (0401 GMT), or 9:01 pm Saturday on the Pacific Coast.
Prior to the White House's clarification, US companies were scrambling to figure out the implications for their foreign workers, with several reportedly warning their employees not to leave the country.
Some people who were already on planes preparing to leave the country on Friday de-boarded over fears they may not be allowed to re-enter the United States, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
"Those who already hold H-1B visas and are currently outside of the country right now will NOT be charged $100,000 to re-enter," Leavitt said.
"H-1B visa holders can leave and re-enter the country to the same extent as they normally would," she added.
H-1B visas allow companies to sponsor foreign workers with specialized skills --- such as scientists, engineers, and computer programmers -- to work in the United States, initially for three years but extendable to six.
Such visas are widely used by the tech industry. Indian nationals account for nearly three-quarters of the permits allotted via lottery system each year.
The United States approved approximately 400,000 H-1B visas in 2024, two-thirds of which were renewals.
- India, US business concerns -
US President Donald Trump announced the change in Washington on Friday, arguing it would support American workers.
The H-1B program "has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor," the executive order said.
Trump also introduced a $1 million "gold card" residency program he had previewed months earlier.
"The main thing is, we're going to have great people coming in, and they're going to be paying," Trump told reporters as he signed the orders in the Oval Office.
Lutnick, who joined Trump in the Oval Office, said multiple times that the fee would be applied annually.
"The company needs to decide... is the person valuable enough to have $100,000 a year payment to the government? Or they should head home and they should go hire an American," he told reporters.
Though he claimed that "all the big companies are on board," many businesses were left confused about the details of the H-1B order.
US bank JPMorgan confirmed that a memo had been sent to its employees with H-1B visas advising them to remain in the United States and avoid international travel until further guidance was issued.
Tech entrepreneurs -- including Trump's former ally Elon Musk -- have warned against targeting H-1B visas, saying that the United States does not have enough homegrown talent to fill important tech sector job vacancies.
India's foreign ministry said the mobility of skilled talent had contributed to "innovation" and "wealth creation" in both countries and that it would assess the changes.
It said in a statement the new measure would likely have "humanitarian consequences by way of the disruption caused for families," which it hoped would be addressed by US authorities.
Related Links
Global Trade News
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
