60% of indian h 1b visa holders earn less than the new fee of $100 000 per year

60% of indian h 1b visa holders earn less than the new fee of $100 000 per year

U.S. President Donald Trump’s proclamation raising the H-1B visa fee to $100,000 per year will disproportionately hurt Indian workers using the visa, as it would exceed most of their annual salaries, according to an analysis by The Hindu Data Team. That mismatch between their salaries and the new visa fee may make it hard for employers to justify hiring these Indian workers.

The fee, which currently ranges from $2,000 to $5,000 per application, may now amount to $300,000 for the initial three-year visa period, if the rule is implemented.

The new annual surcharge would, in 60% of the cases, match or even exceed the yearly salaries earned by Indian H-1B workers, who accounted for 71% of all H-1B visa beneficiaries in the financial year 2023-24. Since Indian professionals typically report lower median wages than their peers from other countries, they are likely to be hit the hardest, both in absolute numbers and as a share of total workers.

According to Reuters, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that the $100,000 charge would apply annually for each of the three years of the visa’s duration, and added that the details were “still being considered”. The H-1B visa is a U.S. work visa that allows companies to employ foreign professionals in specialised fields like technology, engineering, and medicine.

To examine the likely impact on Indian H-1B visa holders, The Hindu Data Team analysed Bloomberg’s open dataset on H-1B applications from 2024. The salary figures were drawn from details submitted by employers before the beneficiary begins work under a H-1B approval. They reflect the proposed or offered pay as stated in the employment agreement, not the wages that have already been paid. However, since only successful, full-time employment petitions that are formally approved by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are included in the dataset, employers are legally required to pay at least the stated amount, making the data suitable for analysis.

The analysis shows that Indian H-1B workers earned a median annual salary of $95,500 in 2024, among the lowest out of all nationalities. Their pay was slightly higher than that of Pakistani and Nepalese beneficiaries. Out of 25 countries with reliable data, India ranked fifth from the bottom in this measure. By comparison, the median annual salary for non-Indian H-1B workers was significantly higher at $120,000.

Indians make up the overwhelming majority of all H-1B beneficiaries. Given their dominance in numbers, it is equally important to examine how Indian workers are distributed across different income levels. An analysis was done of the wage brackets and the share of beneficiaries within each bracket, for both Indian and non-Indian workers.

Nearly 60% of Indian H-1B workers earned an annual salary of $100,000 or less in financial year 2024. Within this group, about 12% earned below $75,000, while 47% fell in the $75,000-$100,000 range. The remaining 40% of Indians earned above $100,000. In contrast, more than 60% of non-Indian H-1B workers reported salaries above $100,000 that year, meaning that Indians will be disproportionately affected.

For many Indians, the proposed surcharge would outstrip their actual pay. For instance, if an H-1B employee earns $80,000 a year — a common salary for mid-level Indian tech workers in the U.S. — the new $100,000 fee would amount to 125% of their annual income. Even at a $100,000 salary, the surcharge would equal the entire annual wage. Since a majority of Indian H-1B holders earn below this threshold, the added cost would consume most or all of their yearly pay, making it unviable for employers to sponsor them.

Since Indian workers typically report lower median wages, they are likely to be hit the hardest.