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US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has signaled that the H-1B visa system will face key reforms before the $100,000 fee applies in 2026. He called the lottery “bizarre,” opposed low-cost hiring, and said visas must go to the most highly-skilled workers. -snip- Lutnick said the H-1B visa lottery system is flawed and needs reform. Referring to conversations with the heads of two leading global tech companies, he said they found the concept of allocating visas for skilled workers through a lottery “bizarre.” He argued that the US must ensure visas go only to the most highly skilled professionals. -snip- The...

A growing push in the US to curtail OPT and tax or restrict foreign student work is rattling Indian students. Policy shifts, surprise site visits and H-1B fee changes are shrinking the post-study path in the US. When students finish degrees in the US, they often rely on Optional Practical Training (OPT) to transition from F1 student visas to H1-B work visas and build a career in the US. That safety net is now increasingly under threat. Senator Tom Cotton’s OPT Fair Tax Act was already spelling trouble. Now, Senator Chuck Grassley and others are urging DHS (Department of Homeland...

The 'American Dream' is often described as the belief that anyone can succeed in the United States through perseverance and hard work. For Ananya Joshi, an Indian woman, that promise fell short. She bid a teary-eyed farewell to the country after failing to secure stable employment. In a conversation with NDTV, Joshi explained that she was on an F-1 visa when she was laid off. She had joined a company during her Optional Practical Training (OPT) period, but they later informed her that they would not sponsor her visa. "At that time I did not panic because I knew I...

US Senator Charles Grassley and Richard J. Durbin has sent a letter to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for hiring thousands of H-1B visa workers in the country while conducting ‘massive layoffs’ globally. The letter, dated September 24, 2025 is addressed to TCS CEO Krithi Krithivasan raises concerns about “troubling employment trends” in the tech industry. It quotes a Wall Street Journal report pointing at the tech sector’s unemployment rate, which is “well above” the overall jobless rate. The letter asks the Indian IT firm that while it has announced to lay off 12,000 employees worldwide, “you have been filing H-1B...

-snip- The suit cites the example of “Plaintiff Phoenix Doe,” to land its point. Doe is described as an Indian citizen residing in Northern California. She is a postdoctoral researcher whose cap-exempt H-1B petition has been halted due to the $100,000 fee. -snip- “As a result of the Proclamation, her university has indefinitely paused moving forward with the processing of her application.” “She is suffering debilitating stress and anxiety due to the uncertainty of her position, which exacerbates the PTSD from which she suffers. Without relief, Plaintiff Phoenix will be forced to leave her postdoctoral position the United States within...

A Florida city councilman is facing growing bipartisan calls for his removal after posting inflammatory comments about Indian Americans on social media and then doubling down on his remarks, triggering outrage from fellow Republicans, state legislators, and community members. Palm Bay City Councilman Chandler Langevin wrote on X.com about people who are from India, accusing those living in the country of exploiting the United States, according to Click Orlando. His posts, which called for the deportation of all Indians and a halt to migration from India, have been widely condemned as racist. Langevin stated last week on X: “There’s not...

US President Donald Trump’s decision to cap international undergraduate students to 15 per cent of a college, with no more than 5 per cent from any single country, has evoked sharp criticism from Telugu students, who form a considerable chuck from India seeking admission in American colleges. Vishvanath Reddy, a student from Hyderabad who is pursuing his masters’ in the US, said “This is deeply unfair to international students. Immigrant students, especially from India, are the lifeblood of universities in the US. Trump cannot just put a five per cent cap on students belonging to a particular nationality. This will...

A coalition of labor unions, health care providers, schools, and religious organizations filed suit today (October 3) to stop President Trump’s latest anti-immigration power grab: a sweeping executive action that slaps an unlawful new $100,000 price tag on every new H-1B application. The proclamation – issued on September 19, 2025, and made effective just 36 hours later – has already thrown employers, workers, and federal agencies into chaos. Plaintiffs are represented by Democracy Forward, Justice Action Center, South Asian American Justice Collaborative (SAAJCO), Kuck Baxter LLC, Joseph & Hall, P.C., and IMMpact Litigation. “South Asians make up the majority of...

“This is devastating. I can’t express it in words,” said one Indian technology professional in Silicon Valley to HT as news of US President Donald Trump’s H1-B visa fee hike spread on Saturday. “I’ve invested a lot of time here in America. I’m staying positive right now but there are times when it’s hard,” adds another Indian professional on an Optional Practical Training (OPT) visa, who was hoping to secure an H1B sponsorship and stay on in America after completing a master’s degree. A pervasive mood of fear and uncertainty looms large among many in the Indian diaspora, particularly young...

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with 33-year-old Shreya Mishra Reddy, a technical program manager at Visa based in Austin. Business Insider has verified Reddy's employment, immigration status, and unsuccessful H-1B attempts. The following has been edited for length and clarity. I never dreamed of living in the US. I grew up in India and wanted to stay close to my parents. In December 2021, I moved to the States for a Master's program in engineering management at Duke University. After I graduated in 2022, I got a job at Visa as a technical program manager in 2023....

Four Indian students were rejected for U.S. visas after undergoing a new Trump-era social media screening. All were told they had failed to prove ties to India. Kaushik Raj felt like his future was falling into place. He’d just won a $100,000 scholarship to pursue a graduate degree in journalism at Columbia University. A U.S. visa was the only thing that stood between him and a new life in New York. Raj, 27, wasn’t overly concerned. He had completed every stage of the traditional application process. As a last step, he had to allow American authorities to vet his “online...

US Senators have asked India's largest IT firm TCS to furnish details about its hiring practices in the US, whether the company has displaced any Americans with H-1B workers, as well as wage parity between H-1B hires and its local US staff. In a recent letter to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) CEO K Krithivasan, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley and ranking member Richard Durbin noted that the company has announced plans to layoff over 12,000 employees worldwide, including American staff. TCS laid off nearly five dozen employees in its Jacksonville office alone, according to the letter. "At the same...

The H-1B visa has helped skilled professionals from across the world to advance America's technology sector. Three stalwarts who have made an indelible mark in the US after obtaining an H-1B visa are - Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella. For many Indians, it has symbolised the realisation of the "American Dream", however, on September 21, US President Donald Trump imposed a new $100,000 fee on this visa, pushing it into major controversy. -snip- Satya Nadella Microsoft's chief executive officer had started his career in the 1990s under the H-1B visa program. He has highlighted the program's importance for...

In India, some of the biggest jobs in tech come to you. Graduates of the Indian Institute of Technology (ITT), one of the country’s most prestigious universities, are recruited directly by Indian companies as well as American firms looking to lock down some of the world’s top talent in fields that will dominate the future, such as artificial intelligence and robotics. Many of them also continue their studies in the United States, where India overtook China last year as the biggest source of foreign students. But policy decisions and other moves by the Trump administration, including the recently announced $100,000...

Paridhi Upadhaya was packing her bags after securing a computer science scholarship in the US until headlines of President Donald Trump's H-1B visa crackdown last week prompted her family in Lucknow to scrap the plan. "Trump's unending onslaught against immigrants is forcing us to consider other destinations for her," the 18-year-old's father, Rudar Pratap said. Upadhaya is among thousands of Indians for whom the American dream of world-class education, lucrative careers, better quality of life and social mobility, is turning sour due to rising U.S. visa restrictions and policy unpredictability. For decades, the H-1B visa has been the gateway to...

In another challenging development for Indian professionals in America, H-1B visas and green card processing is set to be affected as the US government shut down on Wednesday. The shutdown came after President Donald Trump’s Republicans and the opposition Democrats were unable to agree on a congressional budget bill that would fund the government. Immigration lawyers told HT that the shutdown, which ends funding for non-essential government services, will particularly impact new applicants for H-1B visas and employment-based green cards. This development came after the Trump administration announced a new $100,000 H-1B visa application fee for new applicants. The fee...

Confusion and fear gripped H-1B visa holders over the weekend as a sudden US policy change forced some to choose between family commitments abroad and their careers in the United States. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a USD 100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications, part of a broader immigration crackdown, sent shockwaves through the tech and finance sectors, prompting workers from India and China to abandon travel plans and rush back to the US. At San Francisco airport, an engineer whose wife was scheduled to fly to Dubai described the impossible decision he faced. “It is a situation where we...

After US President Donald Trump and Congress failed to reach a funding deal by Wednesday's deadline, the government shutdown began. As a result, hundreds of thousands of federal employees face furloughs, and many offices will be closed. H-1B visas will also face a pause until the shutdown ends, says immigration attorney Nicole Gunara. She said that H-1B visa filings will not be processed until the Congress can agree on federal funding allocations.

Apoorva arrived in New York in 2018 on an H-1B visa, fresh from one of India’s top graduate schools and brimming with hope of building a life in the United States. She soon joined an architecture firm, eager to contribute her skills and establish roots. But her dreams were quickly dashed — because Apoorva, like many other immigrants on an H-1B, soon experienced some visa-related issues. She recalled being stuck at her minimum wage architecture job for over three years. Changing jobs on an H-1B visa is famously difficult, and often means enduring months of bureaucratic limbo and steep United...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) are scrutinizing major corporations for filing thousands of H-1B skilled labor visa petitions after conducting mass layoffs of American employees. “In evaluating the high unemployment rate for American tech workers, we cannot ignore the massive, ongoing layoffs ordered by you and your peers in Big Tech C-suites over the past few years … At the same time you have been laying off your employees, you have been filing H-1B visa petitions for [thousands of] foreign workers,” Grassley and Durbin wrote in letters to 10 major employers in...