HIB visa fee hike impacts Indian IT sector: Crisil report

US President Donald Trump's move to levy higher fees for granting the H1B visas will impact Indian IT majors' profit margins by only 0.20 per cent, an arm of a domestic rating agency said, Thursday.

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This is because the reliance of IT companies on H1B visas has been reducing since 2018, when the denial rates for the visa applications increased to 24 per cent, Crisil Intelligence said. "The US decision to impose a $100,000 fee on new H1B visas for foreign workers will snip just 10-20 basis points from the operating margins of Indian information technology (IT) services companies next fiscal," it said in a note.

These companies, which had operating margins of 22 per cent in FY25, are likely to share the incremental cost with clients, the note said, adding that the pass-through is estimated at 30-70 per cent.

IT firms have expanded offshore delivery, opened near shore centres and hired locally in the US, it said, adding that this trend has continued even as the denial rate eased to 3 per cent in 2024.