IT lobby Nasscom assessing impact of Trump’s proposed $100,000 H-1B fee

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The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) is currently assessing the impact of the US President Donald Trump’s executive order to impose $100,000 annual fee on H-1B visas. This move will have a drastic impact on Indian technology and IT industry and the professionals working in the US.

While the Indian technology industry body is yet to issue an official statement, it said, “We are currently assessing this, and if there is a comment, we will release a statement.”

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

Moneycontrol reported that the Indian government too is assessing the fallout of Trump’s decision.

A senior government official said that New Delhi is in touch with the Indian Embassy in Washington and is holding consultations with Nasscom. “There will be an immediate fallout. We have to see how companies adapt to it,” the official noted.

The official stressed that the new costs are likely to weigh more heavily on American technology firms, which rely heavily on Indian professionals for specialised roles.

At the same time, India sees a potential upside. “In a positive sense, more companies will be setting up global capability centres (GCCs) to meet the shortage of talent,” the official added.

The government also expects that the proclamation could face legal challenges in the United States, given its sweeping impact on employers and foreign workers alike.

To be sure, over the years, Indian IT firms have strategically reduced their dependency on H-1B visas, by increasing local hiring in the US.

Between FY15 to FY23, approved H-1B petitions for initial employment from the top seven Indian IT firms fell 56 percent. It plunged from 15,100 in FY15 to 6,700 in FY23, according to data from the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), Moneycontrol had reported.