New H-1B Rules Hit Indian IT Workers: What You Must Know Now
Indian IT workers in the US face unexpected H-1B drop. Learn which companies lead extensions and which see rejections rise.
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According to the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), data analysis shows that the top seven Indian IT companies together got only 4,573 approvals for new H-1B petitions in the USA for the fiscal year 2025. It signifies a drop of 70% since 2015 and a fall of 37% since 2024.
Among all Indian IT companies, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is the only company that has been listed as a top H-1B employer getting approvals for new hires. It is also at the forefront of Indian companies in continuing-employment approvals, but its rejection rate for the extension has gone up to 7% this year from 4% in 2024. In contrast, the overall rejection rate of USCIS for continuing-employment petitions was still quite low at 1.9%.
During FY 2025, TCS got 5,293 approvals for continuing employment. For initial employment, the company got 846 approvals which is less than the 1,452 in 2024 and 1,174 in 2023. The rejection rate of TCS for new petitions was 2%.
The data indicates a major H-1B shift wherein first-time Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Google have come to occupy the top four places in H-1B new approvals. Only three companies of India are in the list of the top 25 employers of first H-1B petitions.
The major share of H-1B filings is for continuing employment and the denial rates are still low for the major IT service providers. Infosys, Wipro, and LTIMindtree reported 1–2% denial rates for their continuing-employment petitions. However, initial-employment rejections have increased significantly. Among the large Indian companies, TCS only had an initial petition denial rate of 2%, while HCL America had 6%, LTIMindtree 5%, and Capgemini 4%.
Labour certification approvals for software engineers have been on a downward trend for four consecutive years. H1BGrader indicates that the number of certifications granted in this category has decreased significantly from 40,378 in 2022 to 23,922 during the first three quarters of 2025. The trend suggests an increase in the careful examination of visa applications and the corresponding labour evaluations.
Salaries of computer-based H-1B professionals are still very high. The average yearly pay in the FY 2024 was $136,000 and the median was $125,000. About 63% of the visa holders had a master's degree or higher, which proves that the young program continues to lure the highly skilled global talent, rather than unskilled or low-cost labour.
The general trend for FY 2025 shows that Indian IT companies are focusing more on keeping their current employees rather than hiring new ones with H-1B visas. They have faced stricter regulations and changing visa policies, which have resulted in fewer approvals for initial employment.
