The changes to the visa policy increase strains on the India-US relationship and come on the eve of the Indian team’s visit to Washington as they seek to make a breakthrough on trade talks. They also add to a wave of anti-immigration movements across the globe that have impacted the world’s most populous nation.
Donald Trump’s sticker shock on H-1B visas risks disrupting Indian tech firms’ US projects, and is forcing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to once again deal with the fallout from America First policies.
The US president’s order on Friday — which requires a US$100,000 fee for H-1B applications — will hurt margins of Indian outsourcers who use the program to deploy engineers to client sites. That’s a blow to India’s US$280 billion IT services sector, which is already grappling with sluggish growth as customers cut back on technology spending due to geopolitical tensions and Trump’s tariffs.
