Mohandas Pai slams Trump’s H-1B fee math: ‘Indian techies already earn $100K+ in the US’

The U.S. may have just handed India a new offshoring boom. Former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai warned that Donald Trump’s $100,000 annual H-1B visa fee could freeze fresh demand and force companies to shift jobs out of the U.S. entirely.

Pai, a long-time industry voice, dismissed the rationale behind Trump’s proclamation, which claims the H-1B program has been misused to replace American workers with cheaper foreign labor.

“People pay more than $100,000 as salaries—they’re not cheap,” Pai told PTI. “If they pay their staff $100,000, they charge clients $150,000–$160,000. So this idea of sending low-skilled, low-paid workers doesn’t hold water.”

Trump’s order imposes a steep $100,000 annual fee on companies applying for new H-1B visas. While existing visas remain unaffected, Pai said the long-term fallout is clear: “Everybody will work to increase offshoring... it doesn’t make sense to hire onsite.”

Indian firms like Infosys, TCS, and HCL typically file 8,000–12,000 new H-1B applications annually. But the bigger disruption could hit U.S. tech giants that dominate the H-1B leaderboard.

USCIS data for FY2025 shows Amazon led with 10,044 approvals, followed by TCS (5,505), Microsoft (5,189), Meta (5,123), Apple (4,202), and Google (4,181). Infosys (2,004), LTIMindtree (1,807), and HCL America (1,728) also feature in the top 20.

A senior industry expert told PTI the fee is “way too high” and risks dampening innovation across the U.S. tech ecosystem.

Trump’s administration claims the policy will raise over $100 billion and eliminate “bottom quartile” hires. Pai disagrees.

“The rhetoric doesn’t hold water,” he said.

As costs climb and visa pathways close, companies may decide it’s simpler—and cheaper—to hire the same engineers in Bengaluru instead of Boston.