Hyderabad, India\u00a0\u2014 The city of Hyderabad has been called the Silicon Valley of India.<\/p>\n
“Google, Facebook, and all the other bigger companies are here,” Rajesh Jaknalli, who has worked for a U.S. tech company in Hyderabad for about 10 years, told CBS News.<\/p>\n
“This place is actually called High Tech City, but because of the many companies that we have, the term ‘Cyberabad’ has come,” Jaknalli explained.<\/p>\n
Jaknalli says he has worked here with one goal, to get an opportunity to one day move to the U.S.<\/p>\n
“Our dream was to perform, give you 100%, and then probably, we’ll get a chance to move to the U.S.,” Jaknalli said.<\/p>\n
But in\u00a0September 2025<\/a>, the Trump administration announced that\u00a0it would require<\/a>\u00a0that a $100,000 fee be added to new applications for\u00a0H-1B visas<\/a>\u00a0for skilled foreign workers. The White House argued the move would protect American jobs.<\/p>\n Prior to this, H-1B visas had ranged in cost from anywhere between $1,700 and $4,500.<\/p>\n Hameed Abdul thought his Amazon job in Hyderabad would eventually take him to the U.S., but that outlook has changed.<\/p>\n “I got this news, and I was really devastated,” Abdul said. “…It’s not beneficial for any employer, to be honest. Nobody’s going to hire you and give $100,000,” said Abdul, who disclosed that the fee means he has “decided to move to Canada.”<\/p>\n Xavier Fernandes, who founded the immigration agency Y-Axis, says the H-1B visa created a pipeline of tech talent that eventually fueled America’s IT sector.<\/p>\n “It’s definitely America’s loss,” Fernandes said of the fee. “\u2026Many CEOs are from Hyderabad. It’s just a breeding ground of tech.”<\/p>\n According to numbers from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, more than 70% of H-1B visa holders in 2024 were Indian. Pressed on whether he believes that same “brain power” exists in the U.S., Fernandes responded: “That kind of talent you can’t manufacture. It’s not a thing that you can get it locally.”<\/p>\n It’s something even President Trump admitted to in an interview on Fox News last November, telling host Laura Ingraham that “you also do have to bring in talent.”<\/p>\n When Ingraham countered that the U.S. has “plenty of talented people here,” Mr. Trump responded, “No you don’t…You don’t have certain talents, and people have to learn.”<\/p>\n Fernandes believes the new policy “definitely” threatens the trajectory of U.S. innovation.<\/p>\n “Many Indians will stay back and build in India,” Fernandes said.<\/p>\n Countries like Canada, China and Australia are now scrambling to lure skilled foreign workers by making their visa processes easier.<\/p>\n “I’m currently applying to Australia,” Jaknalli said. “The process is pretty straightforward there.”<\/p>\n \n Go deeper with The Free Press\n <\/p>\n
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“Indians are the new oil, coal, or gas, it’s brain power to run the modern day industries,” Fernandes said.<\/p>\n