US President Donald Trump recently announced an increase in the hike of H-1B visa fees. As per the revised regulations, the US H-1B visa fee has been increased from $10,000 to $1,00,000. This sudden increase in the hike of H-1B visa fee created a situation of chaos as tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Google and others asked its employees on H-1B visa to return to US. Now, IIT Madras director has shared his thoughts on the recent H-1B visa fee hike. Speaking to news agency ANI, director of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M), Prof. V. Kamakoti has described US President Donald Trump’s recent decision to impose a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications as a “blessing in disguise” for India. Kamakoti said that this move of the US government could help India in retaining its brightest talent and boost both domestic research and innovation.

“I see this as a blessing in disguise and we must thank President Trump for it. We must take full advantage of this,” he remarked.

Why it matters

The H-1B visa program has long been a pathway for Indian engineers and tech graduates to work in the United States. With the steep new fee, many aspiring professionals may reconsider moving abroad.

Kamakoti believes that this move of US government could benefit India. This decision of the Trump administration will help in talent retention. Students who might otherwise seek jobs in the US could now stay back and contribute to India’s growing tech ecosystem. Along with this, IIT Madras has already seen most of its graduates remain in India, with only about 5% working abroad in recent years. Also, Kamakoti feels that the craze of going to the US is now gone. “”The impact is two-fold -one, the students who go from here with an aspiration to work there might not go now, and as a director of IIT-Madras, I am happy that they will continue in India. I believe as a country we have great opportunities for us to do research here…This is the time when students who want to go there (to the US) can stay here and contribute. In the last 5 years, at IIT-M, we have had only 5% of our population that is not in India. The craze for going to the US is gone here…” said Kamakoti.

Donald Trump’s rationale behind H-1B visa fee hike

In a statement, the White House said the fee hike was aimed at curbing “systemic abuse” of the H-1B program, which it claimed had been used to replace American workers with lower-paid foreign labor. Going forward, only petitions accompanied by the $100,000 payment will be considered.