US President raises cost of new H-1B visa applications this month to $100,000
\n washington
\nDonald Trump\u2019s H-1B visa crackdown, will hasten US firms\u2019 shift of critical work to India, turbocharging the growth of global capability centres (GCCs) that handle operations from finance to research and development, economists and industry insiders say. The world\u2019s fifth-largest economy is home to 1,700 GCCs, or more than half the global tally, having outgrown its tech support origins to become a hub of high-value innovation in areas from design of luxury car dashboards to drug discovery.
\nTrends such as growing adoption of artificial intelligence and increasing curbs on visas are pushing US firms to redraw labour strategies, with GCCs in India emerging as resilient hubs blending global skills with strong domestic leadership.
\n\u201cGCCs are uniquely positioned for this moment. They serve as a ready in-house engine,\u201d said Rohan Lobo, partner and GCC industry leader at Deloitte India, who said he knew of several US firms reassessing their workforce needs.
\n\u201cPlans are already underway\u201d for such a shift, he added, pointing to greater activity in areas such as financial services and tech, and particularly among firms with exposure to US federal contracts.
\nLobo said he expected GCCs to \u201ctake on more strategic, innovation-led mandates\u201d in time.
\nUS President Trump raised the cost of new H-1B visa applications this month to $100,000, from an existing range of $2,000 to $5,000, adding pressure on US firms that relied on skilled foreign workers to bridge critical talent gaps.
\nOn Monday, US senators reintroduced a bill to tighten rules on the H-1B and L-1 worker visa programmes, targeting what they called loopholes and abuse by major employers.
\nIf Trump\u2019s visa curbs go unchallenged, industry experts expect US firms to shift high-end work tied to AI, product development, cybersecurity, and analytics to their India GCCs, choosing to keep strategic functions in-house over outsourcing.
\nGrowing uncertainty fuelled by the recent changes has given fresh impetus to discussions about shifting high-value work to GCCs that many firms were already engaged in.
\n\u201cThere is a sense of urgency,\u201d said Lalit Ahuja, founder and CEO of ANSR, which helped FedEx (FDX.N) Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY.N) Target (TGT.N) and Lowe\u2019s (LOW.L) set up their GCCs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US President raises cost of new H-1B visa applications this month to $100,000 washington Donald Trump\u2019s H-1B visa crackdown, will hasten US firms\u2019 shift of critical work to India, turbocharging the growth of global capability centres (GCCs) that handle operations from finance to research and development, economists and industry insiders say. The world\u2019s fifth-largest economy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506032,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-506012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n