Currently, a company has to spend roughly $10,000–20,000 every three years, which includes all documentation charges and the lawyer's fee. Trump administration wants to change that to $100,000 fee every year.
Published Sep 20, 2025 | 8:27 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 20, 2025 | 8:27 PM
H1B visa. Representative Image. (iStock)
Synopsis: Indian workers in the US on H1B visas are expressing concern over President Trump’s announcement of a $100,000 yearly fee to retain employees. However, they feel that it would be challenged in court and might not become a federal law.
“I don’t think any employer would pay $100,000 fee every year to retain the employee; that is way too much,” Gulshan, a Kerala native who works in the US for a multinational technology company on an H1B visa, told South First.
Hailing from Kerala, he worked in Delhi for a while before being sent to the US on an H1B visa. He has been there since 2018 and is into marketing analytics with a bit of data science and insights.
President Donald Trump’s new proclamation imposing a staggering annual fee of $100,000 on H1B visa petitions has clearly had an impact in more ways than one for him.
Gulshan said that it is unclear whether this would impact new H1B visa holders or those who already have an H1B. “However, if it affects all, it is going to have a big impact,” he added.
Currently, a company has to spend roughly $10,000–20,000 every three years, which includes all documentation charges and the lawyer’s fee.
“This is not an executive order yet; it is just a proclamation. The communication from the HR personnel and mobility teams of companies notified a lot of H1B employees not to travel out of the US right now, since re-entry might be difficult. For now, everybody wants to wait it out,” he said.
He added that the situation is a bit scary, especially for people who have been in the US for more than 10-15 years on the H1B. This can be a big change, he said.
“From what I have read about it and what I have talked to friends, if it gets executed as a federal law, then it is going to have a huge impact, and I am 99 percent sure that I am going to lose my job. I will be coming back to India,” explaining that his employer will have to pay 100,000 dollars per year for him and wondering why they would retain him in such a situation.
He said that we need to read between the lines as well. “There has been a lot of fraud happening with the H1B visas, and some control needs to be taken. People with H1B visas will now have to wait to see if this will be held up by the courts. There are going to be lots of injunctions happening so fingers crossed,” Gulshan said.
When asked if he had an alternate plan in case things turn south, he said, “To be very frank, I have had a Plan B for the last three years. A lot of my friends are PRs (permanent residents) in Canada, and I have the option to be a PR in Australia. But, I wouldn’t even mind coming back to India.”
He, however, added that there has lately been a sentiment against foreign workers in the US since the citizens believe that foreign workers are taking their jobs, rather than understanding that they are not as skilled.
Another individual, a Mysuru-born person, who did not want to be named, has been working in the US for an Indian IT giant since the early 2000s. Currently, he works in mid-management of quality assurance and supply chain.
“Let’s take it one step at a time. Let’s wait and watch to see how the proclamation is interpreted. It is not as cut and dry as it looks. This will be legally challenged,” he said.
He added that he would also be worried not primarily about the order but the speculation and the unnecessary strain on the mind. “I would tell you to also look at previous such orders. Did everything just get implemented? Evidence points otherwise, and now it is important to keep calm and carry on.”
Dr Shilpa Ajay, Professor & HOD, Department of Management Studies, Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, said, “The US decision to impose a $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications marks an inflexion point of historic proportions—not just in immigration policy but in the geography of innovation. While headlines focus on the impact on Indian IT employees, the real casualty is likely the system of high-risk, high-reward innovation that has long been centred in the United States.”
“Medium-sized enterprises and startups, formerly depending on foreign-trained engineers, now find it too expensive to purchase talent. This reorders the cost-benefit calculus of innovation geography. Lower regulatory and faster immigration corridors, as in Canada, Germany, and Singapore, become relatively attractive locations; not merely for labour, but for the IP and capital that it follows,” she added.
Prof Meera Aranha, Adjunct Faculty and professor of finance, TAPMI Manipal, said, “If the fee is prospective, it would be easier for companies to work around. However, if the fees are retrospective and all H1B staff currently deployed in the USA are required to pay $100,000, it would affect millions of households immediately and prove that the USA is an unreliable partner in trade relations.”
Prof Srinivasa Reddy, Chairperson (Placement and Corporate Engagement) and Assistant Professor of Marketing, TAPMI, added, “The worst affected would be American companies, particularly medium-sized companies that rely on Indian staff to deploy IT solutions and cannot afford captive centres or Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in India.”
“Larger companies that use the H1B program to retain talent in AI would also need to invest in captive GCCs in other countries. Hence, the GCC boom has a good chance of continuing, and more high-tech investment would find its way to Bengaluru and Hyderabad,” he added.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
