A US-based Indian tech engineer's post on Reddit went viral late last month, in which the user claimed to have applied for more than 1,500 jobs over the previous few months without receiving a single call. The data engineer, who's been on an H-1B visa for the past three years, wrote, "Unfortunately, my current company has decided not to renew my H-1B application." This prompted other Indians in similar situations in the US to share their experiences and confirm how widespread and serious the job issue has become for Indian professionals there.
Each year, the US issues 85,000 three-year H-1B visas to foreign nationals, and the vast majority have gone to Indians. This visa - a work permit for highly skilled professionals - can be renewed for a further three years at the employer's request, leading to a green card and, eventually, US citizenship. In 2025, about 78% of H-1B visas went to Indians, up seven percentage points from 2024. Most top leaders in America's tech industry have taken this route, including the world's richest man, Elon Musk, Microsoft Chief Satya Nadella, Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, and Jayshree Ullas, the CEO of cloud networking company Arista Networks.
One can't blame young Indian professionals for aspiring to follow in the footsteps of these tech icons. But many young and mid-level engineers and other professionals are now facing a difficult period of job uncertainty, driven by the Trump administration's tough immigration policies, tech giants' growing embrace of AI, corporate restructuring, and a weakening economy. Hundreds of Indian tech engineers have already lost their jobs, and many more are at risk, with disastrous consequences for their families in the US and their dependents in India.
More than 15,000 Indian tech professionals returned home from the US in 2025, and 7,300 have already returned this year, according to the tech hiring and consulting firm Xpheno. The company told NDTV that the situation is worsening and that recent H-1B visa moves in the US could result in the number of returnees surpassing the number of Indian tech professionals moving to the US. Indian techies are "stepping away from the American dream", the company added.
Trump Shocker
In September 2025, President Trump stunned the tech world and lakhs of Indians by announcing a 50-fold increase in the H-1B visa fee to $100,000. He claimed the new fee was necessary to prevent abuse of the programme, saying that some American companies were undercutting US workers' wages by hiring lower-paid foreign workers. This has been a common complaint among members of Trump's MAGA base, who accuse Indians of taking American jobs. Trump insisted that the $100,000 fee would compel US companies to hire Americans rather than foreigners.
While the steep hike may help some companies hire locally, most foreigners, such as Indians, are hired for their superior skills. This has created resentment and envy among some Americans. But there is evidence that Indians help boost Americans' job prospects. A 2024 study by the non-profit IZA Institute of Labor Economics in the US found that H-1B workers actually "help firms increase their employment", and that every H-1B worker a company hired helped produce additional job gains, which includes local hires.
In 2025, H-1B visa applications rose by 7%, but approvals fell by nearly 18%, according to US government data. This year, the US Department of Homeland Security has so far received 2,86,000 applications for this visa category, compared with 4,56,725 in 2025. This suggests that Trump's decision to steeply increase the H-1B visa fee is having an impact. The top technology companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, have been trying to find workers in categories that don't have to pay the fee, such as existing H-1B visa holders. This is not good news for young Indian tech engineers planning to enter the US job market via this route.
Disappearing Jobs
The outlook for many middle-level Indian professionals is also looking dim. Jobs in the tech industry are disappearing fast due to the growing use of AI and restructuring at these firms. More than 160 technology companies have cut at least 1,16,000 employees, according to Layoffs.fyi, which tracks such data. Meta, the owner of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, has begun firing 10% of its workforce, roughly 8,000 employees.
Like Meta, Coinbase and Block have also fired 10% of their staff in recent weeks. Snap, which owns the social media app Snapchat, has laid off 16% of its staff. Cisco and Oracle have also cut thousands of jobs. Microsoft has offered early retirement to roughly 7% of its employees in the United States. Amazon, which has secured the most H-1B visas in the past five years, has laid off 30,000 employees since October.
It's true that most of those who lost their jobs are Americans, but this offers little consolation to Indians, who are already at a disadvantage compared with US citizens in similar situations. An H-1B worker must find another job within 60 days to remain in the US. This has become harder because of the dearth of new jobs for them following the latest job cuts. Unlike Americans, Indian nationals have no social security net to fall back on, forcing them to accept much lower-paid jobs in the non-tech sector to support their families while they wait for a job in their field.
The AI Excuse
Many technology companies in the US have justified job cuts to free up funds for AI operations. Meta said its job cuts are intended to offset the company's rising spending on AI infrastructure. The company plans to spend up to $145 billion on capital expenditure this year, largely to build out AI data centres and stock them with chips. Meta is tracking employees' keystrokes and mouse clicks to help train its AI models to use computers. Effectively, thus, employees are preparing AI to make themselves redundant.
But Meta, Block, and other tech firms are also accused of using AI as a pretext to lay off workers hired during the pandemic, simply to cut costs and increase profits. Cutting jobs to make way for AI is "a nice excuse, but some of these aren't necessarily the best, most well-run companies", Mark Mahaney, an analyst at the investment bank Evercore, told The New York Times last week.
Some companies are candid about the reasons for job cuts. Cloudflare, which provides internet services, has recently cut 20% of its workforce, despite growing by more than 30%. Writing in The Wall Street Journal, its chief executive, Matthew Prince, said, "I did it because business is changing, and to win the future, Cloudflare needs to change with it." Many Indian tech engineers have retrained themselves to provide AI services, but others see a bleak future.
Students Also Hit
Students from India have long been the top choice for US universities. Even in 2024-25, nearly 31% of students were from India, pushing China into second place. But this may now be changing. Last year, 60% fewer Indians were granted F-1 student visas, according to ICEF Monitor, which collects market data for the international education industry. Although visa denials for Africans, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis were much higher, the latest data will still be a major disappointment to Indians.
Even for those who have obtained visas to study at US universities, job prospects are not bright. The Trump administration plans to restrict or terminate the Optional Practical Training (OPT) programme. This is a route many Indian youths have taken over the years to obtain an H-1B visa, secure a lucrative job and settle in the US. Tech giants and other companies have been hiring foreign students for work experience, which they later use to apply for their work permits under the programme. Under the proposed plan, foreign students will be allowed to stay for up to four years, which will restrict their job prospects in the country.
A Political Fallout
Such decisions are influenced by politics in the United States. In January, Texas's Republican governor, Greg Abbott, ordered all public universities and state agencies to halt processing new H-1B visa applications. He told a local radio station that he did not see "any reason" for foreign workers at taxpayer-funded institutions. This shocked the Indian tech community in the US, as Texas has the second-largest H-1B population in the country after California.
The Trump administration is also making it harder for such visa holders to obtain green cards, which is affecting Indians the most, as they are the largest beneficiaries of these visas. Of the 350,120 green cards granted in fiscal year 2025, only 15,460 went to Indians, placing them fifth, even behind China. The denial rate for green cards among the most highly skilled individuals (mainly H1B visa holders) nearly doubled between the fourth quarter of FY 2024 and the fourth quarter of FY 2025, according to an analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy. US government data show that there are 18 lakh pending green card cases. Indians account for over 60% of that wait list.
Like Indians, many Chinese tech professionals are returning home, some after being recruited by their technology companies. China's thriving high-tech industry has absorbed many. But in India, the job situation in the tech industry is worsening. The Indian tech sector's talent demand is currently "on a race to the bottom", according to Xpheno. This month, it has hit a 28-month low, the tech hiring firm adds. Trump's tariffs and his war with Iran have also hit the industry hard. There's some hope, though, from US tech giants like Google and Microsoft, who have stepped up investment in India in recent months. But they can't absorb the large number of tech professionals returning from the United States.
(Naresh Kaushik is a former editor at the BBC and Associated Press. He is based in London)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
