Nasscom says the one-day deadline might have ‘ripple results’ on the US innovation ecosystem, and international job markets.
India’s main commerce physique says the one-day timeline for implementing a brand new $100,000 annual price on H-1B employee visas in the US was a matter of “concern”.
Nasscom, representing India’s $283bn IT and enterprise course of outsourcing trade, on Saturday stated the coverage’s abrupt rollout would have an effect on Indian nationals and disrupt continuity of ongoing onshore tasks for the nation’s expertise providers companies.
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“A one-day deadline creates appreciable uncertainty for companies, professionals, and college students internationally,” Nasscom stated in an announcement, a day after US President Donald Trump announced the fee, which comes into drive from Sunday.
H-1B visas permit corporations to sponsor overseas staff with specialised expertise – equivalent to scientists, engineers, and pc programmers – to work within the US, initially for 3 years, however extendable to 6 years.
India was the biggest beneficiary of H-1B visas final 12 months, accounting for 71 p.c of permitted beneficiaries.
.@RNamb @sangeetagupta29 @doshikavita @shivendra_1969 @nasscomgtd pic.twitter.com/bSfCjDutjs
— nasscom (@nasscom) September 20, 2025
The brand new H-1B measure, which can seemingly face authorized challenges, was introduced alongside the introduction of a $1m “gold card” US residency programme.
Nasscom stated the brand new coverage might have “ripple results” on the US innovation ecosystem and international job markets, stating that for corporations, “extra price would require changes”.
Nasscom added that coverage modifications of this scale have been finest “launched with ample transition durations, permitting organisations and people to plan successfully and decrease disruption”.
US officers on Friday stated the change to the H-1B programme would make sure that corporations would solely sponsor staff with essentially the most rarefied talent units. Nevertheless, such a prohibitive price will seemingly vastly remodel the H-1B system, which was created in 1990 and awards 85,000 visas per 12 months on a lottery system.
Supporters of the H-1B programme say it brings the most effective and brightest to work within the US, creating an edge in opposition to overseas opponents. Critics have lengthy charged that corporations have abused the programme, utilizing it to pay decrease wages and to impose fewer labour protections.
Tech entrepreneurs – together with Trump’s former ally Elon Musk – have warned in opposition to concentrating on H-1B visas, saying that the US doesn’t have sufficient homegrown expertise to fill vital tech sector job vacancies.
Nevertheless, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated: “All the massive corporations are on board.”
Geographically, California has the best variety of H-1B staff, based on the US Citizenship and Immigration Companies.
Some analysts steered the price might drive corporations to maneuver some high-value work abroad, hampering the US’s place within the high-stakes synthetic intelligence race with China, which at 11.7 p.c of whole H-1B visas ranks a distant second, based on authorities knowledge.
Following the White Home’s announcement, main US tech companies Microsoft, JPMorgan and Amazon suggested workers holding H-1B visas to stay within the US, based on inner emails reviewed by the Reuters information company.
The brand new price marks the Trump administration’s most high-profile try to overhaul the nation’s short-term employment visa system. Since taking workplace in January, he has launched a broad crackdown on immigration, together with efforts to restrict sure types of undocumented immigration.
In the meantime, South Korea’s overseas ministry on Saturday stated its officers would “comprehensively assess the influence of those measures on the development of [South Korean] corporations {and professional} abilities into the US market and have interaction in vital communication with the US”.
Tons of of South Koreans have been detained throughout a US immigration raid on a Hyundai-LG battery manufacturing unit website within the state of Georgia this month.