Edelweiss Mutual Fund CEO Radhika Gupta advised Indians working in the US to return home amid the signing of the proclamation requiring companies seeking H-1B worker visas to pay a USD 100,000 yearly fee, creating a buzz across the world.
In her LinkedIn post, Gupta said: “I was fortunate to graduate in 2005, when H-1B norms were far more favourable in the US. But things changed quickly in 2008 during the financial crisis — many Indian students felt upset, lost, and stuck.”
She further said: “Some eventually returned home, and years later, even those of us who still had the visa made the same choice. Today, we’ve built fulfilling lives here — with tremendous professional opportunities and the deeper joy of creating in our own country. Personally, I wouldn’t want to go back — at all.”
Gupta inspired Indians working in the US at present by writing: “So, if you’re on a US campus right now feeling shaken or disheartened, I know what that feels like. But remember: when one door closes, many others open back home. And India of 2025 is a far more exciting place than India of 2005 ever was.”
In a reference to a Bollywood movie that was released in 1999, she said: “Chin up. Aao, ab laut chalen!”
US tech companies react to Trump’s latest H-1B proclamation
Major tech firms like Meta and Microsoft have urged the H-1B visa holders to not leave the United States at least for the next 14 days or return to the country if outside within 24 hours after President Donald Trump announced a dramatic raise of the annual fee for the visa category to USD 100,000, media reports said.
As per a report by NDTV, the companies have urged the visa holders who are outside the country to return within 24 hours to avoid denial of re-entry.
Meta has asked its H-1B visa and H4 status holders to stay in the US for at least 14 days “till practical applications” are understood, the report said.
Microsoft has asked its employees to stay in the country.
In a major crackdown on immigration and imposing limitations on legal immigration, Trump on Friday signed a petition that will impose an annual $100,000 application fee for H-1B visas, impacting a large number of Indian tech workers, who constitute a major portion of the beneficiaries.
“We need great workers, and this pretty much ensures that that’s what’s going to happen,” Trump said from the Oval Office as quoted by CNN.
In a statement issued sharing details about the proclamation, the White House said: “The H-1B nonimmigrant visa program was created to bring temporary workers into the United States to perform additive, high-skilled functions, but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labour.”
The White House said the large-scale replacement of American workers through ‘systemic abuse’ of the programme has undermined both our economic and national security.
The statement pointed out that Information Technology (IT) firms, in particular, have prominently manipulated the H-1B system, significantly harming American workers in computer-related fields.
“The share of IT workers in the H-1B program grew from 32 percent in Fiscal Year (FY) 2003 to an average of over 65 percent in the last 5 fiscal years,” reads the statement.
The White House said the abuse of the H-1B programme is posing a national security threat.
