The $100K H-1B Reset: How the Visa Shock Could Reshape Global Tech Delivery

The US government’s decision to raise the fee for sponsoring an H-1B visa from roughly $4,000–$6,000 to $100,000 per application marks one of the most significant shifts in skilled immigration policy in decades.

What had been a predictable administrative process, became an immediate strategic variable, altering hiring math, project planning, and even family decisions for thousands of professionals. For companies that rely on cross-border expertise, the calculus of where and how to build teams changed overnight, with ripple effects certain to extend from Silicon Valley and Bengaluru to Toronto, Dublin, and Singapore. 

For multinational firms, particularly in technology and consulting, this is not merely an immigration update. It is a strategic inflection point forcing leaders to rethink delivery models, workforce design, and geographic allocation of innovation capacity. 

Why the US Government May Have Raised the Fee

Several strategic considerations appear to underpin the $100K surcharge. 

• Protect Domestic Wages and Opportunities: By lifting the cost of each H-1B hire to six figures, the government is effectively discouraging mass recruitment of foreign mid-skill workers and nudging employers toward US graduates and re-skilling initiatives.
• Prioritize Exceptional Talent: The fee makes it economical only for top-tier specialist roles, aligning with a policy of prioritizing exceptional talent rather than large outsourcing cohorts.
• Generate Fiscal Revenue: Even at modest application volumes, a $100K surcharge yields billions in federal receipts helping fund workforce programs or offsetting immigration-related administration costs.
• Political Signaling: With an election cycle approaching, the move plays to constituencies concerned about job competition, while signaling toughness on immigration.

The American Immigration Council has long argued that H-1B holders complement rather than displace domestic workers, fueling innovation and consumption spillovers. The new surcharge risks unsettling that balance. 

The US Labor Market Context

The US unemployment rate remains relatively low by historical standards, hovering around 4 percent in recent months. But this figure masks the employment shortages in high-skill domains.

In technology and STEM-heavy states, wage pressures, talent shortages, and competition for expertise have coexisted with moderate unemployment rates. The administration’s move reflects a belief that some skilled roles occupied by foreign workers can be brought back into domestic labor pools or at least made more expensive to outsource.

India’s Talent Pipeline at a Crossroads

India is at the center of this policy shift. Over two-thirds of all H-1B visa holders are Indian nationals in FY2024, far ahead of any other country. China was a distant second at 11.7%, and no other country exceeded 2%. 

Country-Wise Share of H-1B Approvals in FY2024

Source: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)

The Indian IT talent pipeline to the US is massive. For decades, Indian engineers and developers have been the invisible scaffolding of US technology growth from coding banking cores in New York to scaling AI models in Seattle. The $100K price tag rewrites that calculus overnight. 

• Acceleration of Offshore Delivery: Indian IT majors have already cut US visa dependence to 3–5% of their global headcount. Now they might accelerate offshore delivery, keeping more projects in Bengaluru or Hyderabad where costs are lower and visas irrelevant.
• Growth of Global Capability Centers (GCCs): Multinationals may expand GCCs, the R&D and product hubs, in India rather than importing talent at six-figure costs.
• Potential Reverse Brain Drains and New Destinations: Skilled Indians who once queued for Silicon Valley may stay home or come back, strengthening India’s startup and AI ecosystems. Others may increasingly look to Southeast Asia and the Gulf, where growing tech hubs in Singapore, Dubai, and Riyadh are competing aggressively for talent with incentives and easier visa regimes.

H-1B Policy Reshapes IT in US and India

The $100,000 H-1B surcharge isn’t just a macro policy shift, it strikes at the heart of how global IT firms structure teams, parcel work across geographies, and leverage human capital arbitrage.

H-1B Visa Cost Surge: Strategic Impact on Indian IT and US Tech Firms

Source: Mordor Intelligence

Impact on Global Technology Firms

The surcharge reshapes how leading employers manage talent. In FY2025, firms like Amazon (10,044 visas), Microsoft (5,189), and Google (4,181) were among the largest H-1B sponsors. Their margins, project pipelines, and innovation timelines now face direct exposure. 

Corporate Playbook: Reinventing Global Delivery

The corporate response to this H-1B disruption is not mere retrenchment, it’s reinvention. Leading firms will transform their delivery architecture, decompose work, build toward automation, and reinvent the boundary between onshore and offshore operations. Those that cling to legacy rotation-heavy models may find themselves outpaced by more adaptive, leaner competitors.