NEW DELHI: United States President Donald Trump hiking H-1B non-immigrant visa fees to a steep USD 100, 000 would affect thousands of Indian students with the American dream.
It will sharply reduce low‑and mid‑paid H‑1B hiring, concentrate approvals on senior and high‑value roles, and force employers and employees to shift to alternative pathways, or restructure staffing models.
Immediate effects are already visible in travel advisories and market reactions; medium‑term effects will reshape sourcing strategies in tech, professional services, and higher education.
The hike would mainly affect those aspiring for a middle- or entry-level jobs, where the early career median wage ranges between USD 65, 000-80, 000 per annum and that for mid-career about USD 100, 000-122, 000 per annum.
These figures are from the same document quoted in the President’s ‘Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers’ order.
For those at high levels, up to the top-of-the-stair position, the employer may not be inconvenienced in paying the sum -- perhaps sharing a part of it with the employee.
But a new Satya Nadella or another Sundar Pichai needs to rise from the ranks. The entry route may now lie almost sealed.
Indian nationals constitute the single largest nationality with seven in ten approvals, and China is a distant second. Other countries make up much smaller shares.
Reports place the working population on H‑1B status in the US at roughly 440-446 thousand individuals, with one such summary citing approximately 442, 000 H‑1B holders for FY 2025.
This category is dominated by computer‑related and information‑technology occupations, software engineers, data scientists, systems analysts, artificial intelligence and machine learning engineers, among others.