By Shanelle Kaul
April 4, 2026 / 7:53 PM EDT / CBS News
Hyderabad, India — Hyderabad is often dubbed India’s Silicon Valley.
“Google, Facebook, and all the other bigger companies are here,” said Rajesh Jaknalli, who has worked for a U.S. tech company in Hyderabad for about 10 years. “This place is actually called High Tech City, but because of the many companies that we have, the term ‘Cyberabad’ has come.”
Jaknalli said his aim has been to perform and earn a chance to move to the U.S. one day. But that expectation shifted after the Trump administration announced in September 2025 that new H‑1B visa applications would incur a $100,000 fee. The White House framed the change as a measure to protect American jobs. Before the change, H‑1B application costs typically ranged from roughly $1,700 to $4,500.
The new fee upended plans for many. Hameed Abdul, who worked for Amazon in Hyderabad, said he was devastated when he heard the news. “It’s not beneficial for any employer, to be honest. Nobody’s going to hire you and give $100,000,” Abdul said, adding that the policy prompted him to decide to move to Canada.
Immigration agency founder Xavier Fernandes said the H‑1B program historically supplied the talent that helped build America’s IT sector. “It’s definitely America’s loss,” Fernandes said of the fee. “Many CEOs are from Hyderabad. It’s just a breeding ground of tech.”
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data show that more than 70% of H‑1B holders in 2024 were Indian. Fernandes compared that talent to natural resources, calling it “brain power to run the modern day industries,” and said that such specialized skill isn’t easy to produce domestically. Even President Trump acknowledged the need for foreign talent in a November interview on Fox News, saying, “you also do have to bring in talent,” and disputing the idea that the U.S. has “plenty of talented people here.”
Fernandes warned the fee could shift innovation away from the U.S.: “Many Indians will stay back and build in India,” he said. Other countries are moving to attract skilled workers with simpler visa processes. “I’m currently applying to Australia,” Jaknalli said. “The process is pretty straightforward there.”
The policy change has left employers and prospective foreign workers reassessing plans and could reshape where global tech talent chooses to work and build companies.