Wipro says H-1B visa fee hike has no impact as 80% of US workforce are locals

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India’s fourth-largest information technology (IT) services company Wipro said the recent hike in H-1B visa fees will have no impact on its business, as the company has already localised a majority of its workforce in the United States.

Amid changes in the US immigration policy, including a 1,000 per cent fee hike on H-1B visas to $100,000 annually, Wipro CEO and Managing Director Srinivas Pallia said, “H-1B has no impact on us. We are not dependent on H-1B visas.”

Speaking at the company’s post-results press conference, Chief Human Resources Officer Saurabh Govil added, “Over the last few years, we have had a very focused and purposeful approach towards localisation. Nearly 80 per cent of our US employee base are locals.”

H-1B visas are non-immigrant visas that allow US companies to employ foreign workers in specialised occupations in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Wipro, headquartered in Bengaluru, has been steadily localising its workforce in key global markets, especially in North America, to reduce dependency on work visas and align with evolving regulatory norms.

Wipro on October 17 reported a 1.15 percent increase in consolidated profit after tax at Rs 3,246 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2025. The IT major had posted a profit after tax of Rs 3,209-crore in the same period a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The consolidated revenue from operations of Wipro was up marginally by 2 percent to Rs 22,697-crore during the July-September period from Rs 22,302-crore in the year-ago period. This was below CNBC-TV18's poll estimate of Rs 22,700 crore.

The comments come a month after the US government raised the H-1B visa fee to $100,000 a year, a move that has triggered concerns over cost pressures and deployment challenges for Indian IT firms operating in the region.

Following the announcement on September 23, the Department of Homeland Security also proposed an overhaul of the lottery-based H-1B system, suggesting a wage-based selection process that prioritises higher-paid, higher-skilled applicants.

Wipro’s stance mirrors that of its peers. Last week, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said it has “significantly reduced its dependency on H-1B visas,” with only around 500 associates travelling to the US on new visas in the past year.