US President Donald Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee’s September 21 timeline for implementation is a concern and a one-day deadline creates considerable uncertainty, Indian software services industry body Nasscom said on Saturday.
“India's tech services companies will be impacted and business continuity will be disrupted for onshore projects,” it said, according to PTI.
The move will impact Indian nationals on H-1B working for global as well as Indian companies, Nasscom underlined.
Indian techies are among the main beneficiaries of the US H-1B visa programme. The US congressional mandated pool is 65,0000 such visas every year along with an additional 20,000 visas reserved for those who have earned advanced degrees in the US.
Major firms have told their H-1B employees and their dependants to return immediately if they are outside America, and those in the US to not leave the country.
There are stories proliferating in social media of Indian techies getting off planes on hearing about Trump’s proclamation and its deadline.
“You’d be pretty heartless to not empathise with H1b holders right now,” the comedian Vir Das wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Kids in school, mortgages, loans, sending money home…to live under the stress of having it all taken away on a whim. There’s no way to plan around or for something like this.”
The visa fee blow comes at a time when the $283-billion Indian IT sector is already rattled by a turbulent business environment in the world's largest outsourcing market.
India’s IT industry also faces delays in client decision-making amid macroeconomic uncertainties, tariffs and trade wars, geopolitical tensions, and the changing landscape driven by AI.
US Senator Bernie Moreno has meanwhile proposed a Halting International Relocation of Employment (HIRE) Act, which if passed will curb outsourcing and promote domestic employment by imposing a 25 per cent levy on payments made by American companies to foreign workers for services benefitting US consumers.