A real estate agent in San Francisco has long been a trusted figure among the Bay Area’s Indian diaspora, especially the tech community. A US citizen himself, he has built a reputation for helping newly arrived professionals, many of whom are on H-1B visas, find housing and settle into life in America. His phone is usually abuzz with inquiries about rental listings, schools, and neighborhood safety.
But last night, the calls were different.
Dozens of frantic voices reached out, not to find a home in the US but to lament being unable to return to India for the festival season. With Diwali around the corner, many H-1B visa holders had planned short trips to visit family, celebrate the festival, and recharge before returning to their jobs in Silicon Valley and elsewhere in the US.
But a sudden change in visa policy has thrown their plans into disarray. “I couldn’t offer them much. Just a patient ear,” the real estate agent said.
US president Donald Trump signed an executive order late on Friday that requires companies to pay $100,000 annually for every foreign worker on an H-1B visa – a 100-fold increase. The abrupt change has left thousands in limbo.
Trump’s decision to impose a $100,000 annual fee on H-1B visas is the latest and most dramatic development in a long-running political debate over the program. While the H-1B visa was originally created to allow US companies to hire highly skilled foreign workers for “specialty occupations,” critics have long argued that it has been exploited by outsourcing firms to replace American workers with lower-paid foreign labour. The new policy is part of the administration’s broader ‘America First’ agenda to protect domestic jobs and wages.
IT companies left scrambling
Back in India, an IT services company was still scrambling to figure out, at the time of filing this story, how to return to the US 10 of its employees who had traveled home for a short break. They had planned to stay in India until the end of October, assuming their return to the US would be routine. Now, they face an uncertain future.
A spokesperson for the company, who requested anonymity, expressed frustration, saying: “We will not be paying $100,000 for each visa. That’s simply not feasible.” The company was drafting an urgent advisory for its US-based employees while senior management convened an unscheduled weekend meeting to assess the fallout.
For many, the decision feels punitive. A software engineer in New York on H1-B visa said, “Obviously companies won’t be willing to pay the high fee, but this decision also impacts people who already have valid H-1B visas but are not in the US. They should have been given at least a week’s notice to allow them to return.”
According to a Reuters report Microsoft, JPMorgan and Amazon have advised employees on H-1B visas to remain in the US. Around 71% of the H1-B visas issued in 2024 went to Indians, while China was a distant second with about 11%.
Life, interrupted
Another software developer, based in New Jersey, had just wrapped up a project involving an AI-powered fraud detection system for a US banking client before returning to India. “My project ended and I came on a one-way ticket to meet my parents and sister in Pune. I was waiting for the next assignment. Now I can’t go back,” he said.
In Bengaluru, a young coder had booked a round-trip ticket, with a return scheduled for 4 October. He had been working on a personalised recommendation engine for an American retailer. “I was in Coorg with my family when I heard about the change. I rushed back to Bengaluru, but despite contacting multiple agents and offering to pay extra, I haven’t been able to reschedule my flight,” he said.
A spokesperson for travel portal MakeMyTrip confirmed there has been a spike in last-minute bookings to the US. “There has been a notable increase in last-minute bookings to the US since this morning. This increase in bookings for same day travel is atypical for a long-haul segment,” he said.
The Indian tech community finds itself grappling with more than just visas. There’s a growing sense of being caught in the crossfire of policy decisions that overlook the human cost. When the dust settles, a lot of good could come out of this, said a Bangalore-based honcho who did not wish to be named. “It’s a blessing in disguise. Top -deck talent will shift to India. This will be the best thing to happen for R&D in India,” he added.
