India’s Tech Elite Reconsider the American Dream Amidst Visa Curbs and Rising Domestic Opportunities
A growing wave of confidence is sweeping across India’s tech sector as rising domestic opportunities and increasingly restrictive US immigration policies lead engineers and entrepreneurs to reconsider the conventional path to Silicon Valley.
Weeks after the US announced steep new fees for H-1B visas, defiant banners appeared at a Delhi metro station near the Indian Institute of Technology, proclaiming: “We still sponsor H-1Bs” and “$100K isn’t going to stop us from hiring the best.” The campaign, launched by AI recruiting platform Metaview, signaled a broader sentiment within India’s elite tech circles – a quiet resistance to Washington’s latest immigration measures.
This confidence is increasingly evident at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the contry’s prestigious network of engineering schools.As the annual campus recruitment season approaches, faculty and students at two IITs shared wiht Bloomberg News that the nation’s brightest engineers are no longer viewing US jobs as essential for success. A surge in growth prospects within India, they say, is fundamentally reshaping career ambitions.
“Its possibly an chance for some of us,” stated the director of IIT-Delhi, Rangan Banerjee, referencing both the Trump administration’s visa restrictions and broader trade tensions between India and the US.
In august, President Trump imposed a 50% tariff on goods from the South Asian nation – the highest in Asia – partly as a response to its ties with Russia.Shortly after, a $100,000 fee was levied on new applications under the H-1B visa program, a pathway widely utilized by both Indian and American tech firms to recruit skilled workers from abroad.
This move, coupled with growing uncertainty surrounding India-US relations, is expected to encourage some talented Indians to return home, Banerjee added.
For decades, graduates of the IITs – institutions that accept fewer than 2% of applicants – have sought opportunities in the US, pursuing lucrative careers in Silicon Valley and beyond. But the allure of the US is waning, especially among the top tier of Indian engineers. While a US degree still holds significant weight, accounting for roughly 30% of India’s overall tech workforce, the trend is less pronounced at less prestigious engineering colleges, where a US degree remains a key to upward mobility. “The kind of higher education system in the US is unparalleled,” said Vineet gupta, co-founder of Jamboree Education, a nationwide coaching network assisting Indian students with applications to foreign universities.
However, even these aspirations are diminishing. According to a report released Thursday by Common App, a college submission platform, applications from Indian students to US colleges have decreased by 14% sence Trump’s return to the White House.
Akshay Sharma,a 19-year-old student at IIT-Delhi,who previously planned to pursue studies in the US,is now exploring internship opportunities in both countries.”Last year, I woudl not have thought to do this.”
The IITs, established beginning in 1951, now comprise 23 colleges across the country, collectively producing approximately 25,000 graduates annually – a small fraction of the 1.5 million engineers India produces each year, according to TeamLease, a leading staffing company.
Arpan Tulsyan, a senior fellow at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, believes that IIT graduates are unlikely to be considerably impacted by the H-1B visa restrictions.
“The scene in India is changing very fast,” she said. “We are not so dependent on the US visa and we shouldn’t be because their policy is not under our control.”
At IIT Bombay, domestic job offers already outnumbered international opportunities before the recent immigration changes. In the 2023-24 academic year, the school reported 1,475 accepted job offers, with only 78 originating from international companies. The institute did not specify whether these firms were hiring for roles within India or abroad.
Early recruitment data indicates strong hiring momentum, according to a report by the Times of India.
“It is looking less lucrative to go to the US, but there are a lot of other offers from other companies and countries,” said Karthik ravi Kumar, a student at IIT-Delhi.
