New Delhi: Indian IT services companies have seen a steep and sustained collapse in their share of new H-1B visas, with approvals plunging around 70% over the past decade, according to a fresh analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP). The review, based on U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data, shows that by FY2025, India-based tech firms are receiving only a fraction of the authorizations they once did.
The NFAP report reveals that the top seven Indian IT companies collectively secured just 4,573 approvals for initial H-1B employment in FY2025 — a 37% drop from the previous fiscal year and a stark contrast to their dominance in the mid-2010s. Initial-employment petitions are those that count toward the U.S. annual 65,000-visa cap, plus 20,000 additional spots for holders of advanced degrees from American universities.
Notably, only three India-headquartered firms managed to appear in the list of the top 25 largest H-1B employers this year, underscoring how dramatically the hiring landscape has shifted.
U.S. tech giants widen the gap
The data underscores the overwhelming advantage U.S. technology companies continue to hold in the H-1B race:
- Amazon topped the charts with 4,644 initial approvals
- Meta followed with 1,555
- Microsoft obtained 1,394
- Google received 1,050
Collectively, these companies secured far more new H-1B workers than the largest Indian employers, mirroring their ongoing push into AI, cloud services, and advanced software engineering — fields in which foreign-born STEM graduates form a crucial part of the talent pipeline.
NFAP Executive Director Stuart Anderson said the numbers point to a significant structural shift: Indian IT players are delivering more offshore services and relying less on U.S.-based H-1B workers, while American tech giants continue to recruit aggressively from U.S. universities and global talent pools to fuel innovation.
A visa programme dominated by small users
The report also highlights that the H-1B programme is far more decentralized than commonly perceived. In FY2025, 28,277 U.S. employers received approval to hire at least one new H-1B worker. Of these:
- 61% secured approval for just one petition
- 95% obtained 10 or fewer approvals
The figures suggest that while a handful of major tech firms dominate the top tier, the vast majority of employers rely on the H-1B system sparingly — often to fill niche, high-specialization roles.
With U.S. tech companies tightening their hold on the limited H-1B quota and Indian services firms recalibrating their on-site staffing models, experts expect the gap to widen further in the coming years, especially as artificial intelligence and advanced computing demand increasingly specialized expertise.
