H-1B fears cool, companies hiring from US campuses to gain

BENGALURU: The Trump administration's decision to exempt those who are already in the US, including foreign students, from the $100,000 H-1B visa fee is a big win for US companies hiring such talent. Many of these are technology companies, for whom immigrant student talent has proved valuable. For Indian IT services companies, the decision may be less significant. They have historically been transferring talent from India on H-1Bs, and that talent will now require payment of the prohibitive $100,000 fee. But as the IT services companies have been pointing out, their dependence on H-1Bs has diminished substantially. They are increasingly hiring locals, and to the extent they do campus hires of those on F1 student visas, they too will benefit from the Trump administration’s latest decisi