H-1B visa fee hike: Nasscom sees marginal impact on IT sector

Following the clarification issued by the White House, tech industry lobby body Nasscom sees only a marginal impact for the Indian IT. The statement pointed at Indian companies' operation in the US have significantly reduced dependencies on H-1B visas over the years and increased local hiring.

"As per available data, H-1B issued to the leading India and India centric companies has decreased from 14792 in 2015 to 10162 in 2024. H-1B workers for the top 10 Indian and India centric companies are less than 1% of their entire employee base," the statement said.

With the new proclamation by US president on the September 19 causing confusion and later the administration clarified that the payment of $100,000 would not be an annual fee, but a one-time payment at the time of applying for H1-B visa. The payment of $100,000 would be applicable to only those who are applying for a fresh H-1B visa in the next cycle of visa allotments and not to those who already possess the category of visa before September 21, 2025, or those seeking renewals.

Nasscom meanwhile also said that the clarification has helped in addressing the immediate confusion around eligibility and timelines, the applicability of enhanced fees starting from 2026 onward, also it gives companies time to further take steps in increasing skilling programs in the US and enhance local hiring. “The industry is spending more than a billion USD on local upskilling and hiring in the US, and the number of local hires has increased tremendously. H-1B is high skilled worker mobility and a non-immigrant visa that bridges critical skills gap in the US. Salaries are at par with local hires. Moreover, H-1B workers are a mere decimal point of overall US workforce” the statement further said.

U.S. president Donald Trump had earlier alleged that IT outsourcing companies' firms were manipulating H-1B visa which in turn is harming American talent. Citing numbers that among computer and math occupations, the share of foreigners in the workforce had grown from 17.7 percent in 2000 to 26.1 percent in 2019, he blamed the abuse of the H-1B visa for the rise in foreign workers. Trump justified the new hike in visa fees stating that H1-B visas were making it difficult for American college graduates trying to find IT jobs due to wage disparity.