The Trump administration's sweeping overhaul of the H-1B visa programme has sharply raised employer costs and tightened scrutiny across every stage of the hiring process, while new government data show a 91% decline in initial petitions for consular processing from cap-exempt employers — a figure drawn from the first eight months following the imposition of a $100,000 fee in September 2025. The findings are detailed in a Congressional Research Service (CRS) assessment dated 14 October 2026.

Key Policy Changes Already in Effect

Among the measures already implemented, the administration replaced the traditional random visa lottery with a weighted selection process in February 2026, prioritising higher-paid and more highly skilled applicants. The revised system first applied to the lottery for H-1B employment beginning in October 2026. Separately, an existing $4,000 biometric fee has been extended to cover certain H-1B and L-1 visa extension petitions — a cost previously not applied to renewals.

In September 2026, President Donald Trump issued an executive order mandating greater coordination among federal agencies when reviewing H-1B applications from employers that had conducted layoffs or planned workforce reductions. Notably, the CRS report observes that existing law does not automatically bar employers who recently laid off American workers from hiring H-1B professionals — a gap that critics argue the new order attempts to address through administrative means rather than legislation.

Proposed Wage Hikes and New Fees

In March 2026, the Department of Labor proposed a substantial increase in the prevailing wages employers must offer foreign professionals. Under the proposal, entry-level wage requirements would rise from approximately the 17th percentile of comparable local wages to the 34th percentile, with requirements for more experienced workers also increasing substantially. The Labor Department estimated these changes would raise employer costs by approximately $1.46 billion in the first year alone.

The CRS assessment also identifies a proposed additional fee of $103,265 for certain H-1B petitions — separate from the earlier $100,000 fee imposed in September 2025 on employers seeking to bring new H-1B workers from overseas. That earlier fee has been temporarily blocked by litigation, according to the congressional assessment.

Impact on Foreign Workers and Their Families

The policy changes extend beyond employer costs and directly affect the day-to-day security of foreign workers and their families. The administration has proposed eliminating the 60-day grace period that currently allows certain temporary foreign workers to remain in the United States after losing employment. It has also ended automatic extensions of work authorisation for spouses of H-1B holders — a benefit introduced under the Obama administration and expanded under Biden.

These measures, if fully implemented, would significantly reduce the buffer available to H-1B workers navigating job transitions, potentially forcing departures before alternative employment can be secured.

What This Means for Indian IT and Tech Workers

Indian nationals have historically been the largest single group of H-1B beneficiaries, and Indian IT services companies serving American clients have long relied on the programme to staff their US operations. The combined effect of higher fees, tightened wage floors, and reduced protections for workers and their spouses is expected to weigh on recruitment pipelines and project margins for major Indian technology firms.

This comes amid a broader pattern of executive action on immigration that has unsettled the US technology sector, where H-1B professionals have played a central role in building and maintaining critical infrastructure. With the proposed wage rules and new fees still working through regulatory and legal channels, the full scope of the overhaul remains in flux — and further litigation is widely anticipated.