India’s IT industry body Nasscom said on Saturday that imposing a new $100,000 annual fee on H-1B visa applications could disrupt the global operations of Indian technology services companies that send skilled professionals to the United States.
The White House announced the new fee on Friday, prompting some major U.S. tech firms to advise visa holders to either remain in the country or return there quickly. The new fee marks Washington’s most high-profile attempt to overhaul the country’s temporary employment visa system.
Nasscom, representing India’s $283 billion IT and business process outsourcing industry, said the abrupt rollout of the policy would impact Indian nationals and disrupt continuity of ongoing onshore projects for the country’s technology services firms.
The industry body said the one-day deadline for the new policy created “considerable uncertainty for businesses, professionals, and students across the world.”
It also said the new policy could have “ripple effects” on the U.S. innovation ecosystem and on global job markets, pointing out that for companies, “additional cost will require adjustments”.
Microsoft, JPMorgan and Amazon responded to the announcement by advising employees holding H-1B visas to remain in the United States, according to internal emails reviewed by Reuters.
Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has launched a broad crackdown on immigration, including efforts to limit certain forms of legal immigration.
‘Stop Bringing In People’
“If you’re going to train somebody, you’re going to train one of the recent graduates from one of the great universities across our land. Train Americans. Stop bringing in people to take our jobs,” US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said.
Trump’s threat to crack down on H-1B visas has become a major flashpoint with the tech industry, which contributed millions of dollars to his presidential campaign.
Critics of the programme, including many US technology workers, argue that it allows firms to suppress wages and sideline Americans who could do the jobs. Supporters, including Tesla CEO and former Trump ally Elon Musk, say it brings in highly skilled workers essential to filling talent gaps and keeping firms competitive. Musk, himself a naturalised US citizen born in South Africa, has held an H-1B visa.
Some employers have exploited the program to hold down wages, disadvantaging US workers, according to the executive order Trump signed on Friday.
The number of foreign science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workers in the US more than doubled between 2000 and 2019 to nearly 2.5 million, even as overall STEM employment only increased 44.5% during that time, it said.
(With inputs from Reuters)
