India is poised to turn a headline shock into a long-term prize. Washington’s abrupt move to slap a US$100,000 charge on new H-1B visa applications has rattled markets, hitting India’s flagship technology shares and trimming both the Nifty 50 and Sensex. To many investors, it looked like a gut punch to a sector that depends heavily on sending engineers and developers to the US. But history shows that when America raises barriers to skilled immigration, global companies don’t cancel their projects – they shift them offshore.
This plays directly to India’s strengths. The H-1B visa has been a quiet engine of US dominance in technology and innovation. Around 70% of approvals each year go to specialists in computing, data science and other high-end engineering roles.
At any moment, roughly 600,000 to 700,000 of these professionals are working inside the US. Economists estimate their contribution to American output at well over $100 billion annually.
