The CEO of a tech company that is one of the biggest H-1B visa sponsors in the U.S. said they would no longer be hiring applicants on the visa amid a Trump administration visa crackdown.
Tata Consultancy Services’ CEO K Krithivasan said that the Indian tech company would reduce the number of H-1B visa holders in its U.S. offices.
Krithivasan told the Times of India that the company would “continue to hire more locally,” adding that this was part of a “reduction in dependency on visa-based talent.”
Why It Matters
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows U.S. employers to hire skilled foreign workers.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in September that would impose an annual $100,000 fee to companies for H-1B visas, citing “abuse” of the program.
Critics of the visa scheme have said it undercuts the U.S. workforce, while its proponents have argued that it helps the country draw in skilled talent from around the world.
What To Know
Tata Consultancy Services was the second largest sponsor of H-1B visas in the U.S. in the financial year of 2025, second only to Amazon, with 5,505 visas approved, according to data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The Indian tech company is headquartered in Mumbai, but also employs thousands of employees at its U.S. offices.
Krithivasan told the Times of India that the company had around 11,000 employees on H-1B visas as part of its roughly 32,000 workforce in the U.S.
The CEO said that the company would now reduce the number of employees on visas and focus on hiring locally.
“We have enough people on H-1 already in the US. I don’t think we would be looking for adding to that count,” Krithivasan told the Deccan Chronicle.
The CEO said that the scale down of employees on H-1B visa was part of an ongoing strategy to reduce reliance on visa-based talent, but it comes as the Trump administration introduced a steep fee for the visa.
“Our original plan was always to send people on H-1 with the intention of bringing them back and rotating them. So it continued to focus on bringing back at the end of the programs, or rotating them with locals. And how much we would renew or whom we would renew is a call we will take at the appropriate time. We are looking to increase our local participation,” he told the Deccan Chronicle.
The $100,000 fee for H-1B visas remains in effect, but it faces legal challenges, including a lawsuit filed earlier this month seeking to block it by a wide coalition including unions and employers.
What People Are Saying
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said about the $100,000 H-1B visa fee in September: “Either the person is very valuable to the company and America, or they are going to depart and the company is going to hire an American. And that’s the point of immigration. Hire Americans and make sure the people coming in are the top, top people. Stop the nonsense.”
What Happens Next
TCS’s decision to phase out new H-1B hires could signal a broader shift among tech firms as they adapt to the Trump administration’s tougher stance on immigration.
