MC EXPLAINER $100,000 visa wall: How Trump’s H-1B move could reset India-US talent, tech and hiring

New rule charges employers $100K per H-1B visa; India-heavy tech, newcomers and global talent among the hardest hit.

Picture this: you’re an Indian software engineer, dream job at a Big Tech firm in the US secured. Your employer files your H-1B visa. Suddenly, your employer must write a cheque for $100,000, just to start the process. That’s the new reality as of Sept 21, 2025.

On Sept 19, 2025, US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation that slaps a $100,000 payment requirement onto most H-1B visa petitions from outside the US.

Let’s unpack what this means for India, for US firms, for every person caught in between.

What changes on day one (and who feels it first)

Prospective or travelling H-1Bs outside the US are the immediate targets. Without the $100,000 payment tied to the petition, visas will be refused and entry denied after the effective date. If you’re already inside the US in valid H-1B status, the proclamation doesn’t target you directly.

The proclamation also orders DOL to begin raising prevailing wage levels and DHS to prioritise higher-paid H-1Bs through rulemaking. Those are separate, slower processes that will tilt the programme even further toward senior, high-salary roles.

What is clear vs what is still murky

Clear (from the text):
• Payment condition applies to H-1B entry/approvals tied to beneficiaries outside the US.
• National-interest waivers are possible for individuals, companies, or industries.
• Effective September 21, 2025; expires in 12 months unless extended after agencies report post-lottery.

Unclear (pending guidance):
• Who gets broad exemptions? Logical candidates: healthcare in shortage areas, critical infrastructure/defense, certain research/academia, but nothing automatic is written in.
• How it interacts with cap-exempt filers (universities/nonprofits): not carved out in the text; they’ll likely seek national-interest treatment.

The cost stack before this order (context that matters)

According to Frequently Asked Questions on the USCIS Fee Rule, published on Jan. 31, 2024, even before the proclamation, H-1B already carried non-trivial costs: $215 cap registration (new rule), $780 I-129 base, $500 fraud fee, $750/1,500 ACWIA training fee (size-based), and a $600 Asylum Program Fee (with some reductions for small employers/nonprofits), plus optional premium processing. The $100,000 payment, as framed by the White House, sits on top of these.

India is ground zero for impact

Let’s break it down. Indians are the H-1B backbone: about 71 percent of FY2024 approved H-1B petitions were for India-born beneficiaries. Computer-related occupations made up roughly 64 percent of all H-1B approvals. Other fields (engineering, healthcare, etc.) are much smaller in comparison. When you bolt a $100,000 gate onto new petitions and re-entry, you choke the junior pipeline first and concentrate approvals at the very top end (or in exempted sectors).

For Indian professionals: early-career engineers and OPT grads counting on the OPT - H-1B path will face fewer sponsorships. Families planning to travel during visa renewals must watch the timing closely.

For India’s IT services and GCCs: expect a mix shift to offshore delivery and continued growth of Global Capability Centers in India, but onsite rotations (long a career escalator) will be harder to secure.

Companies under pressure: Who rests on the precipice

Some names keep coming up in the data on H-1B usage, these are the firms most directly exposed to the $100,000 payment requirement.

Big Tech & Cloud Giants

Amazon / AWS: In 2025, Amazon remains the largest single sponsor of H-1B visas. As per Reuters, it had over 12,000 approvals in just the first half of 2025, including via its cloud unit AWS.
Microsoft and Meta Platforms: Each had 5,000+ H-1B approvals in that same time frame.
Google, Apple: Also among top users of H-1Bs; these firms tend to hire foreign workers in both senior and junior tech roles, R&D, product engineering.

Indian & Global IT/Services Players

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Cognizant: Big names from India; each is a major sponsor of H-1B visas, especially for technology delivery roles, remote client work, and onsite deployment.
HCL Technologies, IBM, Capgemini, Wipro: Also in the mix. These firms depend both on new petitions and renewals/transfers. Some roles are junior, which may be least able to justify the extra cost.

Consulting/Finance

JPMorgan Chase saw a large increase in H-1B sponsorships in 2025. Although its use is less than Big Tech, the cost impact per role is proportionally harder to absorb in organisations where salary vs headcount margins are tighter.
Also, other firms in financial services, management consulting, and those hiring for specialised STEM or quant roles will be similarly impacted—not always in bulk numbers, but in high-value roles.

Who might be hit hardest (junior + mid-size firms)

Startups and mid-sized tech companies: They tend to use H-1Bs for junior / mid-level roles, training programs, or clients who demand specific skills. If each overseas hire or entry/travel costs $100,000 extra, many of these companies will pull back, delay, or shift roles overseas, as per a an analysis by Reuters and other outlets

Universities/research labs: Though not 'companies' in the traditional sense, they also use H-1B workers (postdocs, specialised researchers). Without clear and broad exemptions, they’ll face major cost increases.

Exemptions Under (c): Where companies might find relief

Buried in the proclamation’s Section 1(c) is the escape hatch. It states that the restriction on H-1B entry “shall not apply to any individual alien, all aliens working for a company, or all aliens working in an industry, if the Secretary of Homeland Security determines, in the Secretary’s discretion, that the hiring of such aliens is in the national interest and does not pose a threat to the security or welfare of the United States.” (whitehouse.gov)

What this means in practice

Broad discretionary power: The Secretary of Homeland Security can exempt not just individual cases, but entire companies, or even whole industries. That’s a sweeping authority to carve out relief if the political and economic pressure mounts.

Likely candidates for exemptions:
• Healthcare providers facing physician and nurse shortages, particularly in underserved regions.
• Defense contractors and firms tied to national security or intelligence.
• Critical infrastructure and tech sectors, semiconductors, AI, cloud computing, and cybersecurity, where the US is in direct global competition.
• Universities and research institutions, which rely heavily on post-docs and specialised researchers.

Not automatic: The language is discretionary. Companies or industries will almost certainly need to petition or lobby for exemptions, showing that their roles serve a national interest and pose no security risk.

Ambiguity and delay risks: While subsection (c) looks generous, implementation may be narrow. Agencies could set a high bar, granting only case-by-case relief or limiting industry-wide carve-outs. That uncertainty is why many employers aren’t banking on it yet.

Political leverage: Subsection (c) effectively turns exemptions into a bargaining chip. Expect intense lobbying from hospitals, Big Tech, and universities. The administration can use it to pick winners and losers in the labour market.

The bottom line for India and global talent

What this really means is the US is testing whether it can price-gate skilled migration. If courts allow it (even temporarily), H-1B becomes a premium channel: fewer entry-level roles, more senior hires or waiver-eligible work, and a bigger offshore push. Given Indians’ dominant share of H-1B approvals, India bears the brunt of the short-term pain