New Delhi: A decision of the US President Donald Trump to raise H-1B visa fees to $100,000 per worker is likely to hurt America more than India, think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said on Sunday. It said that Indian IT firms already employ 50-80 per cent locals in the US, about 100,000 Americans in total. “So the measure won’t create many new jobs. Instead, it will make hiring Indians on-site costlier than hiring locals,” the GTRI said.
Explaining further, it said, an IT manager with five years’ experience earns $120,000-150,000 in the US, versus 40 per cent less on H-1B and 80 per cent less in India. “Faced with this huge fee, firms will accelerate offshoring, doing more work remotely from India. That means fewer H-1B petitions, less local hiring, higher project costs for US clients and slower innovation,” GTRI Founder Ajay Srivastava said. He added that India must plan to benefit from fee hikes by using the returning talent to build domestic capacity in software, cloud and cyber security — which will boost India’s digital “Swaraj Mission”.
