Former Infosys CFO and trade veteran Mohandas Pai on Saturday (September 20, 2025) stated the U.S. transfer to impose a steep $1,00,000 annual fee on H-1B visa candidates will dampen fresh functions by corporations and will speed up offshoring in coming months.
U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a proclamation that may impose $1,00,000 annual visa fee for extremely expert employees. The H-1B nonimmigrant visa programme was created to convey non permanent employees into the U.S. to carry out additive, high-skilled capabilities, nevertheless it has been intentionally exploited to substitute, somewhat than complement, American employees with lower-paid, lower-skilled labour, Mr. Trump stated in the proclamation.
Dismissing the notion that corporations use H-1B visas to ship low-cost labour to the U.S., Mr. Pai identified that the typical wage paid by the highest 20 H-1B employers exceeds $1,00,000, and criticised what he termed as misplaced ârhetoric carrying onâ. An IT trade knowledgeable who didn’t want to be named stated that the fresh approvals for Indian tech corporations ranges from 8,000-12,000 yearly. The affect is not only on Indian corporations but in addition on international tech giants like Amazon, Google, Microsoft who account for vital H-1B numbers to get âthe best talentâ to the U.S. Fee of $1,00,000 is method too excessive, the supply stated.
Meanwhile, Mr. Pai identified that the affect shall be âlimitedâ for now, because it solely impacts new functions, and current H-1B visas are âsafeâ.
âIt has got limited application, because…it doesnât 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. Nobodyâs going to pay $1,00,000, that is very true,â Mr. Pai advised PTI.
He argued that as such H-1B wages are ânot cheapâ.
âPeople pay more than $1,00,000 as salaries, theyâre not cheap. If they pay their staff $1,00,000 they charge their clients $1,50,000-1,60,000 so all this idea of sending cheap, low-skilled people, that doesnât hold water,â Mr. Pai stated.
Going ahead, corporations are probably to enhance offshoring.
âNow what will happen is everybody will work to increase offshoring…because it doesnât make sense, first, you donât get talent, second the costs are too high theyâll 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,â he stated.
Mr. Pai has, in the previous, maintained that Indian IT companiesâ dependence on H-1B visas has considerably decreased over a time frame, highlighting that information signifies many main American tech corporations are in reality among the many high candidates for these visas.
A have a look at the USCIS web site reveals that for fiscal 12 months 2025 (information as on June 30, 2025), Amazon topped the listing of H-1B visa approvals at 10,044.
In that listing of high ten beneficiaries, TCS (5,505) is on the second spot adopted by Microsoft Corp. (5,189), Meta (5,123), Apple (4,202), Google (4,181), Cognizant (2,493), JP Morgan Chase (2,440), Walmart (2,390) and Deloitte Consulting (2,353). The high 20 listing contains Infosys (2,004), LTIMindtree (1,807), and HCL America (1,728).
An trade knowledgeable famous stated that the newest transfer by the U.S. would decelerate innovation in the U.S.
The Congress has set a mandated cap of 65,000 H-1B visas with 20,000 further H-1B visas for professionals who’ve obtained a graspâs diploma or greater from an accredited U.S. establishment.
According to USCIS web site, the H-1B programme permits employers in the United States to quickly make use of international employees in occupations that require the theoretical and sensible software of a physique of extremely specialised data and a bachelorâs diploma or greater in the particular specialty, or its equal.
