H-1B Visa Fee Hike: Midcap Indian IT Firms See Little Concern, Reduced Visa Reliance Key

Indian IT companies, especially the midcaps like Coforge, Persistent, Mphasis, have moved quickly to reassure investors that there will be no material impact of Donald Trump's recently announced $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications.

Several IT companies have confirmed to the exchanges that the steep increase will have no material or significant impact, with many highlighting reduced reliance on the visa programme and increased local hiring.

Last week, US President Donald Trump announced a new $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications, but the nature of the announcement, coupled with a lack of transparency, led to fearmongering and online speculation, even leading to companies like Microsoft and Meta urging their workers to return to the United States.

However, the White House later confirmed the $100,000 fee is a one-time payment and will only be applicable to new petitions, acting as major relief for Indian workers and even IT companies.

Five companies have so far released exchange filings detailing the potential impact of the steep increase in H-1B visa fees.

Coforge Ltd., for one, has confirmed that the US accounted for 53% of its FY25 revenue but downplayed the impact of the H-1B fees. This is due to a shrinking dependence on fresh H-1B petitions, the company said in an exchange filing.

In FY25, Coforge submitted only 65 petitions, out of which 63 received approval. With a total workforce of 34,000, the company emphasised that its long-term strategy has been to reduce visa reliance.

Persistent Systems Ltd confirmed the new norms won't have any material impact on the company, which is closely monitoring the recent developments.

Mphasis Ltd., on the other hand, acknowledged filing about 130 new H-1B petitions in 2025, with 78 approvals so far.

However, the company said the impact will not be significant because the portion of its US workforce on H-1B visas remains relatively small, the company said in a filing sent to the exchanges.

Mphasis also highlighted its strategy to cut visa dependence and increase local hiring, acquisitions and partnerships, as well as an AI-led business model.

Cyient Ltd. was another company to report a negligible impact of the new H-1B visa fees, citing that in FY25, only six visas were deployed.

“We do not anticipate any material impact on our financials for FY26 and the immediate term,” the company said in an exchange filing.

Finally, Firstsource Solutions Ltd., part of the RP Sanjiv Goenka Group, also confirmed there will be no material impact on the company.

It stressed that the company's talent model is based on local hiring and globally distributed teams.