Hyderabad has a hum that feels like it runs on deadlines—autos outside, laptop fans inside, and that constant sense that something big is always being shipped. For Rajesh Jaknalli, the city has been a launchpad for years.
Jaknalli, who has worked for a U.S. tech company in Hyderabad for about 10 years, described the area as “High Tech City” and said the crowd of major firms helped popularize the term “Cyberabad.” His goal has been straightforward: perform well, give “100%,” and eventually earn a chance to move to the U.S. That plan has now been complicated by a policy shift that asks employers and workers to rethink what’s possible.
In September 2025, the Trump administration announced that it would require that a $100,000 fee be added to new applications for H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers. The White House argued the move would protect American jobs. Before that change, H-1B visas had ranged in cost from anywhere between $1,700 and $4,500. The gap isn’t subtle, and people who believed the U.S. was the next step now say the math has changed.
Hameed Abdul said his Amazon job in Hyderabad was once tied to an American future—until the news hit. “I got this news, and I was really devastated,” he said. He added that the fee is “not beneficial for any employer, to be honest,” and that “nobody’s going to hire you and give $100,000.” Abdul has since said he has “decided to move to Canada,” which is… a stark pivot, but also an understandable one when options start shrinking.
Xavier Fernandes, who founded the immigration agency Y-Axis, argues the H-1B program built a pipeline of tech talent that helped fuel America’s IT sector. “It’s definitely America’s loss,” he said, adding that “Many CEOs are from Hyderabad” and that the region is a “breeding ground of tech.” According to numbers from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, more than 70% of H-1B visa holders in 2024 were Indian. Fernandes framed that dominance in a way that’s more emotional than policy: “Indians are the new oil, coal, or gas, it’s brain power to run the modern day industries.”
Pressed on whether the same “brain power” exists in the U.S., Fernandes said that kind of talent “can’t” really be manufactured or created locally. He also pointed to remarks President Trump made in an interview on Fox News last November, telling host Laura Ingraham that “you also do have to bring in talent.” When Ingraham countered that the U.S. has “plenty of talented people here,” Trump responded, “No you don’t…You don’t have certain talents, and people have to learn.” Fernandes believes the new policy “definitely” threatens the trajectory of U.S. innovation, warning that “Many Indians will stay back and build in India.” And once that idea takes hold—talent staying put—it can be hard to unwind.
Canada, China and Australia are now scrambling to lure skilled foreign workers by making their visa processes easier, and Jaknalli is already looking outward again. “I’m currently applying to Australia,” he said. “The process is pretty straightforward there.” Maybe it’s just a detour for him. Or maybe, for a lot of people like him, the “next step” stops being the U.S. entirely—at least for now.
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