H1B visa approvals for Indian IT firms shrink sharply in 2025; US tech giants dominate

washington: the number of h1b visas granted to indian it companies in the united states has fallen sharply in 2025 compared to previous years, even as american technology giants continue to secure the largest share of approvals.indian technology firms have traditionally relied on h1b visas to deploy skilled professionals in the us. earlier, companies were required to obtain federal approval and pay a fee of less than usd 1,000 for each visa. however, from september 1, the us administration under president donald trump mandated an annual fee of usd 100,000 per visa, alongside additional conditions and eligibility restrictions.data released by the national foundation for american policy (nfap) shows that the top seven india-headquartered it firms received only 4,573 h1b approvals for new positions in 2025 — a steep 70 per cent decline from 2015 and 37 per cent lower than in 2024.tata consultancy services (tcs) remains the only indian company in the top five recipients, though its rejection rate rose from 4 per cent in 2024 to 7 per cent this year. tcs secured 5,293 h1b approvals for employment extensions in 2025.only three indian companies feature among the top 25 firms receiving h1b approvals for new roles this fiscal year, underscoring the tightening landscape for indian applicants.incontrast, american tech giants dominate new h1b approvals: amazon (4,644), meta (1,555), microsoft (1,394) and google (1,050). amazon also leads in visa extensions with 14,532 approvals, followed by tcs, microsoft, meta, apple and google.the nfap report notes that the sharp decline poses operational constraints for indian it companies, even as us firms expand their ai-focused hiring.