A wave of panic and confusion has spread across the Indian community and the global technology industry, following US President Donald Trump’s surprise order, with a $100,000 fee on H-1B visas, affecting the largest group of beneficiaries of the skilled worker program.
The first announcement on Friday culminated in a chaotic scene that looked like he was riding an Emirates flight from San Francisco to Dubai, causing immediate and widespread confusion. The plane was trapped in the tarmac for three hours as H-1B holders scrambled to understand whether they could re-enter the country.
Videos of the incident, verified by CNN, appear to show that the captain is trying to calm the nerves of passengers on board.
“Because of the current situation, they are clearly unprecedented for us here in the Emirates,” he can hear confused passengers check their phones and say about the plane speakers. “We know that a lot of passengers don’t want to travel with us. That’s absolutely fine.”
CNN contacted Emirates about a response.
Masud Rana, who took the video on the flight, called the situation “Complete Chaos” “complete chaos” in an Instagram post, adding that “it was panicking among many, especially Indian passengers, and even chose to leave the aircraft.”
Washington described the program as “systemic abuse,” justifying the latest immigration crackdown as a necessary measure to encourage the employment of American workers.
The H-1B visa is a work visa that is valid for three years and can be renewed for another three years. Economists argue that the program will help US businesses stay competitive, grow their businesses and create more jobs in the US.
But Trump’s new move has been set to disproportionately affect skilled professionals from India who have consistently explained most of the approved applications in recent years, threatening to overturn the career paths of hundreds of thousands of individuals and disrupt the business models of high-tech companies that rely on global talent.
The H-1B visa fees “are likely to have humanitarian consequences from the disruption caused by families,” India’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday, adding that “we hope that the disruption can be properly addressed by US authorities.”
The White House later revealed that a $100,000 visa fee would only apply to the new H-1B application.
For decades, the H-1B visa has served as a gateway for some of India’s brightest minds to enter the US workforce and an important launchpad for building a long-term career in America.
This allowed skilled Indian experts to contribute to their expertise, but in many ways they were deeply integrated into the structure of American innovation.
The most striking evidence of this success is seen through the top leadership of today’s high-tech giants: Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, Arvind Krishna of IBM, Shantanu Naraen of Adobe, all born in India and earned degrees from American universities.
The National Association of Software and Services Companies of India (NASSCOM), a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group, said the new orders “may have a ripple effect on the American innovation ecosystem and the wider employment economy.”
According to data from US Citizenship and Immigration Services for 2025, which ends at the end of this month, Amazon is a leading beneficiary of the H-1B program and has secured around 10,000 visas. The second largest recipient was India’s high-tech giant Tata Consultant Services (TCS), with over 5,500 approved petitions.
Under the new $100,000 visa fee, that level of employment will lead to an incredible potential cost of $1 billion on Amazon and $550 million on TCS for a year applicant.
CNN has contacted some of the biggest Indian beneficiaries of the H-1B Visa programme for comments, including TCS, Cognizant Technology Solutions, HCL Tech, Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Ltimidtree, Mphasis, and more.
However, according to Nomura analysts, these IT service providers are not expected to simply absorb the costs.
Research notes predict that Japan’s Financial Services Group is likely to accelerate its strategic shift towards increasing offshoring and automation. Additionally, forecasting an increase in adoption in “nearby” locations like Mexico and Canada, expensive H-1B visas are reserved only for “very important roles” that local talent is not available.
The visa announcement represents a new front in which the Trump administration is expanding economic pressure on India.
The move follows the imposition of a 50% tariff on Indian goods last month, and the White House has been justified as a punitive measure against India’s imports of Russian oil.
“The export of services has finally been dragged into the ongoing global trade and technology war,” wrote Madhavi Arora, chief economist at Emkay Global Financial Services, in a note on Sunday.
However, Alora also argued that the policy could have unexpected benefits for India and could bring talent home.
While it can focus top experts within India’s largest tech companies, she also said it can “catalyze India’s transformation into a stronger global innovation and distribution hub.”
Ashok Gupta, resident of Mumbai, agrees.
“It’s a loss to America, not India,” he told Reuters. “People who can’t go abroad and pay that much will open their offices here. Working here will make India even more progress.”
