New Delhi: Former Infosys CFO and industry veteran Mohandas Pai on Saturday expressed concerns over the US government’s recent decision to impose a steep annual fee of USD 100,000 on H-1B visa applicants. He stated that this move is likely to reduce fresh applications by companies and may accelerate offshoring in the coming months.
US President Donald Trump has signed a proclamation introducing the USD 100,000 annual visa fee for highly skilled workers under the H-1B nonimmigrant visa programme. Originally created to bring temporary workers into the US to perform additive, high-skilled functions, the programme has been criticized by Trump as being deliberately exploited to replace American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.
Dismissing the notion that companies use H-1B visas to send cheap labor to the US, Pai pointed out that the average salary paid by the top 20 H-1B employers exceeds USD 100,000. He criticized what he termed as misplaced “rhetoric carrying on” around the visa programme.
An IT industry expert, who chose to remain anonymous, noted that fresh approvals for Indian tech companies typically range from 8,000 to 12,000 every year. The impact of the new fee will not only affect Indian companies but also global tech giants like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, which account for significant H-1B numbers to attract “the best talent” to the US. The expert added that the USD 100,000 fee is excessively high.
Meanwhile, Pai emphasized that the immediate impact will be “limited” since the fee only applies to new applications; existing H-1B visa holders are unaffected.
“It has got limited application, because… it doesn’t apply to all the H-1B visas which are already there. So there could be only impact for anybody applying in future, new applications will come down. Nobody’s going to pay USD 100,000, that is very true,” Pai told PTI.
He further argued that H-1B wages are “not cheap.”
“People pay more than USD 100,000 as salaries, they’re not cheap. If they pay their staff USD 100,000, they charge their clients USD 150,000-160,000, so all this idea of sending cheap, low-skilled people, that doesn’t hold water,” Pai said.
Looking ahead, Pai suggested that companies are likely to increase offshoring operations due to these changes.
“Now what will happen is everybody will work to increase offshoring… because it doesn’t make sense. First, you don’t get talent; second, the costs are too high—they’ll increase offshore. That will happen over the next maybe six months to one year. So we have to wait and see what happens, but right now, for 3-6 months, it will not have any big impact,” he added.
Pai has previously noted that Indian IT firms’ dependence on H-1B visas has significantly decreased over time. He also highlighted that data shows many leading American tech companies are among the top applicants for these visas.
According to the USCIS website, for fiscal year 2025 (data as of June 30, 2025), Amazon topped the list of H-1B visa approvals with 10,044 approvals. The top ten beneficiaries include:
– TCS: 5,505
– Microsoft Corp: 5,189
– Meta: 5,123
– Apple: 4,202
– Google: 4,181
– Cognizant: 2,493
– JP Morgan Chase: 2,440
– Walmart: 2,390
– Deloitte Consulting: 2,353
The top 20 list also includes Infosys (2,004), LTIMindtree (1,807), and HCL America (1,728).
An industry expert noted that the US government’s latest move could slow down innovation in the country.
Currently, Congress mandates a cap of 65,000 H-1B visas annually, with an additional 20,000 visas available for professionals who have earned a master’s degree or higher from an accredited US institution.
According to the USCIS website, the H-1B programme allows US employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in occupations that require the theoretical and practical application of highly specialized knowledge and a bachelor’s degree or higher in the specific specialty, or its equivalent.
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https://www.freepressjournal.in/business/trumps-100000-h-1b-visa-fee-hike-to-curb-applications-boost-offshoring-former-infosys-cfo-mohandas-pai