Amrutha Tamanam was in India last week on paid leave when her boss in the US messaged her about President Donald Trump’s new diktat of $100,000 H-1B visa fee. The techie, who has built a life for herself over a decade in the US, suddenly found herself scrambling for flights, fearing she might get shut out of the country she has long called home.
In an interview with NDTV, Tamanam revealed she spent around $2,000 (around Rs 1,65,000) for a one-way trip to Dallas, as she frantically rebooked an earlier flight to ensure she entered the US before President Donald Trump’s new visa order came into force.
“My original round trip was around $900,” she said.
Tamanam’s story resembles that of many Indian professionals who have built lives for themselves in the US after entering the Western nation under the skilled visa programme. She described the chaos and confusion that entered her life since Trump’s Friday order.
“I have a valid I-797 (a document issued by US Citizenship and Immigration Services) until 2028. I have my visa, which is again valid until 2028. I have an approved form I-140 (Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers)… I thought I had all the documents in hand. So let me wait until my actual travel date, which was on September 27. But then, when I saw messages pouring out in the WhatsApp groups, I went into panic,” she said.
“I tried reaching out to a couple of attorneys…They were like, if you have a chance to come back, come back.”
Tamanam hopes that Team Trump amends the immigration rules again and reduces the visa-free, otherwise it could be “the end of the H-1B program”.
“I have friends who paid less than $100,000. So now that if they are not even getting paid $100,000, how would an employer pay that amount for per person’s entry?.. That was a huge amount,” she added.
The Indian techie fears for her future in the US, where she had built a whole life over 13 years.
“The reason I rushed down to come back to the US is because… I’ve already set up my whole life over here, and I have a full-time job, I have my own house, I have everything set up over here, and I don’t want to throw out anything that I have already hard-earned in 13 years of my US life. So, that’s the reason I did travel panic,” she added.
The Trump administration on Tuesday released a proposal that would rework the H-1B visa selection process to favour higher-skilled and better-paid workers, according to a related Federal Register notice, a move that follows a White House proclamation on Friday introducing a $100,000 fee for the visas.