Trump’s revised H-1B visa fees amount to 10% of the annual profits of five Indian IT firms

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd sponsored 5,364 H-1B Visas in 2025, while Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp sponsored 2,493 and Infosys 2,004, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services data. LTI Mindtree Ltd sponsored 1,807 such visas and HCL Technologies sponsored 1,728.

The new order, effective 21 September, would increase visa fees from about $13.4 million to $1.34 billion if the five Indian IT companies were to bring a similar number – 13,396 people – to the US on H-1B visas in the future. Currently, a non-US worker on an H-1B Visa pays $215 and his employer contributes an additional $780 for the visa application.

TCS ended FY25 with $5.74 billion in profit, while Cognizant’s Infosys’s net income totaled $3.16 billion and $2.24 billion. Cognizant follows a January-December financial year. LTI Mindtree and HCL Technologies’ net income totaled $520 million and $2.04 billion. The revised H-1B visa fee would amount to about 10% of these five companies’ $13.7 billion of profits.

Death knell

“The H-1B is definitely finished if these fees materialise," Siddharth Pai, co-founder of Siana Capital, a venture fund manager in Bengaluru. “All companies that use this visa class will have to readjust around it, including changing business models to the extent needed. So yes, all industries using this visa class will change."

Phil Fersht, chief executive of HFS Research, an outsourcing-research firm in the US, said, “A jump from $1,000 to $100,000 per H-1B petition is not an incremental change; it is a direct attack on the Indian IT delivery model. “No provider can simply absorb that level of cost. Passing it fully to clients is unrealistic, especially in a hyper-competitive market, so the hit will show up in margins."

“For the largest IT firms, the damage can be cushioned by diversifying into more local hiring, nearshore delivery, and accelerated automation. For mid-tier firms that rely heavily on H-1Bs, the shock could cut several hundred basis points off operating margin," he said.

“Even if this policy is stayed in court, the psychological effect is permanent. Boards will not design new projects around H-1B staffing as long as this level of policy risk exists," Fersht added. “So the short answer is: no, companies cannot pass this on wholesale to clients. They will absorb some, reprice some, but most importantly, they will accelerate the redesign of their delivery models away from H-1Bs."

A spokesperson for Cognizant said, “We are reviewing the President's proclamation to evaluate the potential implications. At this point, we do not have the details to respond accurately. Cognizant has established a resilient business model that creates flexibility to hire the best candidates for open roles, including robust local recruiting and hiring infrastructure."

Emails sent to TCS, Infosys, HCLTech and LTIMindtree remained unanswered.

‘Less dependent than before’

“Indian IT services players' dependence on H-1B visas has fallen substantially over the years. In fact, US firms are now the biggest sponsors of H-1B," said Abhishek Kumar, IT Research Analyst, JM Financial Institutional Securities Ltd. American companies including Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Google were the largest recipients of H-1B visas in 2025. “In the current cost-constrained demand environment, it might be difficult to pass on the higher cost to clients. That could lead to some impact on margins," Kumar added.

Industry body Nasscom said, “While we are reviewing the finer details of the order, adjustments of this nature can potentially have ripple effects on America’s innovation ecosystem and the wider job economy… However, it is also important to note that India and India-centric companies have been steadily reducing their reliance on these visas through increased local hiring in recent years.

“These companies also follow all necessary governance and compliance in the US for H-1B processes, pay the prevailing wages and contribute to the local economy and innovation partnerships with academia and startups. The H-1B workers for these companies by no means are a threat to national security in the US," it added.

Companies are ‘very happy about it’: Trump

On Friday, Trump dismissed a question on whether technology company executives would be concerned about the action. “I think they’re going to be very happy. Everyone’s going to be happy. And we’re going to be able to keep people in our country that are going to be very productive people," Trump said. “And in many cases, these companies are going to pay a lot of money for that and they’re very happy about it."

For now, it is unclear whether companies sponsoring H-1B visas will recall their workers and how they will continue to work under the revised rates. That said, in the medium to long term, firms may be able to find ways to navigate the landscape better by either hiring even more local workers or offshoring or outsourcing more work.

“The H-1B non-immigrant visa program was created to bring temporary workers into the United States to perform additive, high-skilled functions, but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor," read the order signed by Trump.