Why Indian IT’s reliance on H-1B work visas has plunged 56% in the last 8 years

Reducing dependence on H1-B visas: Over the past eight years, India's top seven IT services companies have experienced a significant 56% decrease in their utilization of the H-1B visa program, which is the premier US work visa.

Interestingly, the trend has been the opposite for major American technology companies like Amazon and Google. According to an ET report, experts attribute the declining reliance on H-1B visas by Indian IT companies to their increased local hiring efforts in the United States. Additionally, factors such as high denial rates during the Trump administration and the tightening of immigration policies have contributed to this shift.

The National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) data shows that approved H-1B visa petitions for initial employment in the US from the seven Indian companies dropped from 15,166 in fiscal 2015 to 6,732 in 2023.

Tata Consultancy Services, which had the highest approvals in FY15, saw a 75% decline over the eight-year period. Infosys, Wipro, and HCL America (the US unit of HCLTech) experienced declines of 21%, 69%, and 46%, respectively. The remaining three companies — LTIMindtree, Tech Mahindra, and Hexaware Technologies — also reported a decrease in approvals.

"The number of new H-1B petitions for Indian companies declined because the companies built up their domestic workforce in the United States and have relied less on visas. Also, Indian companies are following the industry trend of serving clients by using more digital services, such as cloud computing, bots and artificial intelligence, which require fewer workers," said Stuart Anderson, the executive director of NFAP.

Anderson believes that the use of the H-1B program by Indian companies is unlikely to increase significantly in the future, as these companies will almost certainly continue to expand local hiring in the US when possible and follow the trend of using more technology.

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Indian IT service providers like Infosys have been hiring extensively in the US, replicating their Indian talent model, which has reduced the need for H-1B visa workers, according to Peter Bendor-Samuel, chief executive of research firm Everest Group.

"However, it has not eliminated the need and most Indian firms would like to increase the number of H-1B's. It is the huge numbers applying for H-1B's and the lottery to get them which is constraining the numbers," Bendor-Samuel said.

The US government has recently taken steps to tighten the work visa regime. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) increased the H-1B registration fee to $215 from $10 and the application fee to $780 from $460 earlier this year. Additionally, a $600 'asylum fee' was added while filing H-1B and other petitions, making the process more expensive.

In April, the USCIS reported that the number of eligible registrations had decreased by nearly 40% from 758,994 for FY 2024 to 470,342 for FY 2025. The agency attributed this decline to its new 'beneficiary-centric' approach, which aims to reduce fraud. The total number of registrations also fell from 780,884 for FY24 to 479,953 for FY25.

According to Phil Fersht, chief analyst at HFS Research, the significant influx of Indians emigrating to the US with their companies has resulted in a reduced need to sponsor visas for junior or mid-level Indian staff.

The decreasing reliance on H-1B visas by Indian IT companies for initial employment in the United States has been attributed to several factors. According to Fersht, "It hurts the cost-effectiveness of the Indian services model to keep accelerating the immigration of more Indian tech workers." The expert pointed out that the higher cost of living in the US and the growing opportunities for IT professionals within India have made moving to the US less attractive for Indian tech workers.

In contrast, some American Big Tech companies have experienced the opposite trend. Amazon, for example, went from being ranked 10th in terms of approved H-1B visas for initial employment in FY 2015 to being ranked 1st in FY 2023, with a 279% increase in approvals. Similarly, Google, which was not among the top 10 in 2015, ranked fourth in FY 2023.

Shivendra Singh, vice president of global trade and development at Nasscom, an IT industry body, highlighted the Indian companies' efforts to localize their workforce in the US over the past decade. He stated that the industry has invested $1.1 billion in strengthening the STEM pipeline in the US, collaborating with more than 130 colleges and universities, and upskilling 255,000 employees. Additionally, the industry has directly and indirectly created and supported over 600,000 jobs in the US.

Singh emphasized that despite the changes in H-1B visa trends, "Around 70% of the visas still go to Indian nationals, a large proportion being hired by American companies. This is testimony to their skill set, and critical role in making the US economy the No.1 economy in the world."



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