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What is the story about?
Shares of Indian IT companies, Infosys Ltd., TCS Ltd., Tech Mahindra Ltd., Wipro Ltd. among other large and midcap companies fell up to 1% on Wednesday, December 24, after the Trump administration announced the latest changes to the H-1B visa selection process.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday, modified the H-1B selection process, by replacing the random lottery method with a weighted selection process, giving greater importance to higher skilled and highly paid workers.
According to the USCIS, the random process was abused for lower wage imports, and this will ensure greater protection for the American worker.
The new process will take effect from February 27, 2026 and will apply starting with the financial year 2027 H-1B cap registration season.
This move also aligns with US President Donald Trump's commitment to reform the H-1B process, including a separate policy demanding an additional $1,00,000 per visa as an eligibility condition.
As per the current categorization, Wage Level I, or entry level wage workers comprise of 35% to 40% of all H-1B petitions, followed by qualified Wage Level II workers with 35%, experienced Wage Level III workers between 15% and 20%, and the fully competent Wage Level IV workers, which comprised of 10% or less, of the overall petitions.
This shows that nearly 70% of all H-1B visas are currently issued to Wage Level I and II workers, while the highly paid skilled workers are issued up to 30% of the visas.
Based on the new norms, Each unique beneficiary's registration will be given multiple entries into the selection pool based on the wage level:
Level IV will have the highest weightage, will be entered into the pool multiple times, thereby significantly boosting odds of getting a visa. On the flip side, Level I categorization will have no extra weight and the lowest odds of getting a visa.
In addition to these developments, a Federal judge said that the Trump administration can move ahead with the $1,00,000 fee on the new H-1B applications.
When the $1,00,000 visa fee was proposed in September, Sandip Agarwal, fund manager at Sowilo Investment Managers had estimated the overall hit to Indian IT margins to be in the range of 6% to 7%.
“The top five Indian IT companies have $80 billion of revenue. This year, there are about 10,000 visas. So, 10,000 visas into $100,000 is a $1 billion impact. With an average 20% margin on $80 billion, that’s $16 billion. So $1 billion out of $16 billion is a 6–7% impact broadly. Quite significant, to be honest,” he had said back then.
US District Judge Beryl Howell said in a ruling Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s move to radically increase the cost of the popular visa is lawful.
Shares of Coforge are the top losers on the Nifty IT index with a 1.1% fall in early trading on Friday, while shares of Infosys, Tech Mahindra, HCLTech, Wipro, and Persistent Systems are down between 0.5% to 1%.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday, modified the H-1B selection process, by replacing the random lottery method with a weighted selection process, giving greater importance to higher skilled and highly paid workers.
According to the USCIS, the random process was abused for lower wage imports, and this will ensure greater protection for the American worker.
The new process will take effect from February 27, 2026 and will apply starting with the financial year 2027 H-1B cap registration season.
This move also aligns with US President Donald Trump's commitment to reform the H-1B process, including a separate policy demanding an additional $1,00,000 per visa as an eligibility condition.
As per the current categorization, Wage Level I, or entry level wage workers comprise of 35% to 40% of all H-1B petitions, followed by qualified Wage Level II workers with 35%, experienced Wage Level III workers between 15% and 20%, and the fully competent Wage Level IV workers, which comprised of 10% or less, of the overall petitions.
This shows that nearly 70% of all H-1B visas are currently issued to Wage Level I and II workers, while the highly paid skilled workers are issued up to 30% of the visas.
Based on the new norms, Each unique beneficiary's registration will be given multiple entries into the selection pool based on the wage level:
Level IV will have the highest weightage, will be entered into the pool multiple times, thereby significantly boosting odds of getting a visa. On the flip side, Level I categorization will have no extra weight and the lowest odds of getting a visa.
In addition to these developments, a Federal judge said that the Trump administration can move ahead with the $1,00,000 fee on the new H-1B applications.
When the $1,00,000 visa fee was proposed in September, Sandip Agarwal, fund manager at Sowilo Investment Managers had estimated the overall hit to Indian IT margins to be in the range of 6% to 7%.
“The top five Indian IT companies have $80 billion of revenue. This year, there are about 10,000 visas. So, 10,000 visas into $100,000 is a $1 billion impact. With an average 20% margin on $80 billion, that’s $16 billion. So $1 billion out of $16 billion is a 6–7% impact broadly. Quite significant, to be honest,” he had said back then.
US District Judge Beryl Howell said in a ruling Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s move to radically increase the cost of the popular visa is lawful.
Shares of Coforge are the top losers on the Nifty IT index with a 1.1% fall in early trading on Friday, while shares of Infosys, Tech Mahindra, HCLTech, Wipro, and Persistent Systems are down between 0.5% to 1%.
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