President Donald J Trump has imposed a visa petition fee of US$ 100,000 for all new H-1B visa petitions filed from September 21, 2025. It is reliably understood that this fee is payable by the company on filing of the petition. This is without any certainty of the petition being accepted and an H-1B visa being granted to the applicant employee. This prohibitive fee is imposed with the intention to make more jobs available for local talent, instead of companies hiring expats at a lower cost. When we observe the US Government’s decision from their lens with focus on their national interests, it is obvious that the US Government has done this with the intent to create more and more local jobs for local Americans.

According to various reports, India takes away a lion’s share of the total H-1B visas issued, which is believed to be around 70 per cent. There has been a perception within the US that the H-1B Visa route has been blatantly exploited by large IT outsourcing companies who leveraged the H-1B Visa system to cut salary costs by deploying low-skilled, low-cost Indian techies to US client sites as onsite postings. This was totally contradictory to the original intent of the policymakers to entice and invite highly skilled technocrats who would foster innovation. As a result, US citizens have started seeing Indian IT professionals as low-cost, less-skilled, commoditized labor, instead of highly skilled technocrats and innovators. This sentiment is further exacerbated with the perception that Indian IT Professionals are “stealing Americans’ jobs."

In his efforts to revive the US economy and create jobs in the US for Americans, President Trump has embarked on his very Americanised “Atmanirbhar America" agenda which he calls MAGA. While this H-1B Visa fee has come as a shocker for innumerable aspirants who intend........

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