Aditi Menon recently graduated with an engineering degree from a college in India’s central Madhya Pradesh state, and secured admission to a couple of mid-tier US universities for her master’s degree.
However, her plans to build a future in the US have been thrown into disarray after US President Donald Trump last week for H-1B visas that allow highly skilled foreign workers to find employment in the US.
US tech companies have routinely used the visa program to attract talent for computer programming and development jobs. Applicants from India make up over 70% of approved beneficiaries under the program. Coming up second are skilled workers from China, amounting to 11%.
Every year, a limited number of 85,000 visas are offered by a lottery system, with 20,000 of those reserved for foreign graduates with advanced degrees from a US college or university.
Currently, visa applicants pay a small fee to enter a lottery, and if an application is selected, another fee is paid to formally process the application. Companies recruiting workers generally pay the fees, which currently range from $2,000 to $5,000 (€1,695 to €4,238). The newly announced fee applies once, and only to new applications.
E-commerce giant Amazon tops the list of H-1B beneficiaries with 10,000 visas approved in the latest tranche. Microsoft and Meta each have received around 5,000, with the Mumbai-based multinational Tata Consultancy Services also in the same range.
Now, with the Trump administration’s , many applicants feel like a door is closing.
“I realize it is unlikely that any employer will sponsor me unless I attend a top-ranked school or fill a rare skill gap. Life looks uncertain in the US especially for potential job prospects after graduation,” Menon told DW.
Tech talent looking elsewhere
Menon is considering delaying her move to the US or exploring graduate programs in countries like Canada or Germany, where she feels the post-study work chances are better.
Cecilia Hu, an employment-based immigration lawyer in New York, told DW that her clients from seeking H-1B visas are “very panicked” and have started exploring alternative immigration options.
Hu noted that Trump’s swift changes to the H-1B visa policy could intensify US-China competition for high-tech talent. While Trump likely does not intend to drive out top talent, his latest executive order has triggered this effect.
“We’ve also observed that many Chinese students tend not to consider staying in the US after graduation,” Hu said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Monday it would not comment on US visa policies, but noted that China “welcomes outstanding talents” from across the world.
China has recently opened the door for young foreign professionals in science and technology fields with a newly created “K visa” that will take effect in October.
“There is indeed concern that the US could be driving out a large number of talented individuals, while China may very well absorb a portion of this top talent,” Hu said.
Meera Shankar, a former ambassador of India to the US, told DW that the imposition of a $100,000 fee for H-1B visas effectively guts the program.
“Many will look for other destinations for higher studies. Indian companies must diversify, use more automation and AI and do more of their work in offshore centers. These would be steps to cope at a practical level. But all this ,” she said.
US tech jobs getting tougher for foreigners
Siddharth Rao, who recently completed his master’s degree in information systems from the University of Texas, knows it is an uphill task to secure employer sponsorship and register for the next H-1B visa lottery scheduled in March 2026.
“Many small and mid-sized IT companies will certainly hesitate to sponsor candidates like me due to the prohibitive costs of the visa,” Rao told DW.
“Employers that once valued niche expertise are rethinking sponsorship because the $100,000 fee is just too high to justify for most roles. It is no longer enough to be highly skilled. One needs to be deemed ‘extraordinary’ to get a shot,” added Rao.
Experts point out that IT companies that traditionally hired large numbers of Indian H-1B workers are facing sharply increased immigration costs, which could reduce profit margins.
This will likely accelerate shifts toward automation, offshoring work, and recruiting local US talent to avoid these fees.
Jayant Krishna, a former regional director at Tata Consultancy Services, told DW that Indian tech firms operating in the US already started winding down dependence on H-1B workers, and are recruiting more US citizens.
National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), a tech industry interest group, said in a statement that India’s tech industry is spending “$1 billion on local upskilling and recruitment in the US, and the number of local hires has increased significantly.”
H-1B as a bridge to ‘America’s innovation ecosystem’
Ram Krishnan, a tech entrepreneur in Boston, told DW that historically, the H-1B pathway has been a critical bridge for Indian students who first come to the US to pursue STEM graduate programs.
“Just like Vinod Khosla, a venture capitalist known for co-founding Sun Microsystems in 1982, many others have tapped into America’s innovation ecosystem and went on to build companies that transformed global technology infrastructure while contributing enormously to the US economy and workforce,” Krishnan told DW.
He cited the more recent example of Perplexity AI, valued at nearly $20 billion (€17 billion), and co-founded by Aravind Srinivas, who was named as one of the “TIME100 Most Influential People in AI” in 2024.
“Aravind came to the US as a student and earned his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. Without the H-1B pathway, the creation of transformative companies like Perplexity, and the innovation, jobs, and economic growth they bring, would have been far less likely,” added Krishnan.
Edited by: Wesley Rahn
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