US Visa Price: A heated debate is sweeping throughout social media after the US authorities launched a controversial change to its H-1B visa system, a transfer that has despatched ripples by the worldwide pupil group, particularly in India. The change raises the H-1B utility price to a staggering $100,000 and has sparked confusion and fear amongst aspiring college students. However amid the uproar, many specialists and netizens level out that Indian college students aiming for American universities may very well profit from the shift, not endure.
The brand new rule focuses on firms that misuse the visa course of to import expertise from outdoors the US. Between September 2025 and September 2026, the brand new rule will primarily have an effect on employers, not these already within the nation on F-1 pupil visas.
For Indian college students, this implies little to fret about. These already in the US or planning to pursue a Grasp’s or Bachelor’s diploma, particularly in science, know-how, engineering or arithmetic (STEM), stay unaffected.
Grasp’s graduates can work for as much as three years underneath Elective Sensible Coaching (OPT) after finishing their diploma. That provides them time till round 2029 earlier than they even want to use for an H-1B visa, lengthy after the present rule’s time period ends. Undergraduate college students have a good longer timeline, stretching effectively into the 2030s.
Curiously, some imagine the coverage would possibly really profit college students finding out in the US. Since employers should pay a steep price to rent expertise from outdoors the nation, they might want recruiting worldwide college students already dwelling and dealing underneath F-1 visas. This might create extra job alternatives for Indian graduates already embedded within the system.
The demand for expert staff in America stays enormous. A Georgetown College report estimates that by 2032, the US will want 5.25 million extra educated professionals. Many of those positions would require no less than a bachelor’s diploma and worldwide college students, particularly from India, will fill a lot of that hole.
Indian college students already play an enormous position within the US economic system. Final yr, they despatched $135 billion residence in remittances, a determine anticipated to double inside three years. For America, worldwide college students add greater than $42 billion yearly to its economic system by tuition, dwelling bills and innovation. With out them, universities would face main shortfalls.
However not everybody sees optimism on this scenario. Some customers on-line warned towards what they referred to as “false hope”. One submit learn, “Employers don’t like uncertainty. Below the present administration, hiring worldwide college students or H-1B staff = uncertainty. There is no such thing as a readability on whether or not the $100k price will apply to 2026 petitions. Cease brainwashing college students into this spiral of limitless stress. There are different international locations to construct a greater life too.”
One other consumer took a calmer tone, saying, “With all of the assumptions being made with the information, it’s refreshing to see the image from a distinct angle. Recognize it!”
For now, the rule’s largest influence falls on employers, not college students. And in that area between anxiousness and alternative, hundreds of Indian college students proceed to pack their goals into suitcases certain for America, chasing the identical promise that constructed generations earlier than them.