At 5 am in Kothagudem, Khammam district, Telangana, a 38-year-old healthcare consultant was jolted awake to a flood of WhatsApp messages. Friends were forwarding screenshots of a US presidential proclamation that threatened to upend her life in one stroke: from September 21, anyone entering the US on an H-1B visa would have to pay $100,000 to re-enter.

“For the first hour, I told myself not to panic,” she recalls. Her papers were in order — a freshly stamped H-1B valid until 2028, an I-797 approval (an official confirmation for your visa petition), an I-140 petition (immigrant petition for ‘alien’ workers).

But she knew the truth of US border control: “Ultimately, it’s the officer’s discretion. They could still deny me entry.”

She finally flew out and landed in the US at 4.30 pm on Sept

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