Coforge Ltd, Mphasis Ltd, Persistent Systems Ltd, Firstsource Solutions Ltd, and Cyient Ltd said they have reduced reliance on such visas over the years and continue to focus on local hiring.
Last Friday, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring companies to pay $100,000 annually for every foreign worker brought under the H-1B visa, up from about $1,000 at present. White House clarified on Sunday that this one-time fee will apply only for new visa applications, and not for existing H-1B visa holders. These permits allow highly skilled non-immigrants to work in the US on a temporary basis.
RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group-owned Firstsource Solutions, a business process management services provider, was the first among the four mid-cap peers to inform exchanges that its operations would not be affected.
“…the measures will have no impact on its workforce or business operations. Firstsource has zero-dependency on the H-1B program for its operations,” according to its press release dated 21 September. “…The company’s talent strategy is founded on strong local hiring and a globally distributed execution model.”
Coforge’s 21 September statement, too, said, “Over the years, the Company has consciously reduced reliance on new H-1B petitions for project staffing, which is reflected in the low number of fresh petitions filed in FY25.”
India’s seventh-largest information technology (IT) services provider said it filed only 65 new H-1B visa applications last fiscal, of which 63 were approved by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). That translates to about 0.18% of its 34,187-member workforce.
“Based on our current assessment, we hereby wish to inform that we do not expect any significant impact of the above Executive Order on our operations or financials,” Persistent Systems, which ranks ninth by business among IT peers, said in its statement on 21 September. “We will continue to monitor the developments in this regard closely and will provide updates, as appropriate.”
Its mid-cap peer Mphasis tried to allay fears over Trump’s new visa policy on Monday.
“We do not foresee any significant impact on our financials or operations given our low H1B filing volume as well as the relative portion of our overall U.S. employees that are on H1B visas,” said an Mphasis statement.
So far in 2025, the eighth-largest IT services firm has filed about 130 new H-1B visas, of which 78 were approved. That’s down from about 663 people, or about 2% of its 31,442 employees, working on H-1B visas in the US last fiscal.
“Over the years, we have been steadily reducing our reliance on visas through increased local hiring, acquisitions, and partnerships. We are fully staffed for all existing client requirements and will operate in a business-as-usual mode,” said Mphasis. “We will continue to adjust and evolve and are focused on making sure that our AI-led propositions solve any challenges that may arise.”
Cyient Ltd, too, said its business would not be impacted.
“…we would like to inform that Cyient does not anticipate any material impact on its financials for FY26 and immediate term,” the company said in its statement on 21 September, citing Trump’s executive order. “For FY25, the number of Cyient employees deployed on H1B was 6.”
Coforge, Mphasis, Persistent Systems, Firstsource and Cyient ended FY25 with revenue of $1.47 billion, $1.68 billion, $1.41 billion, $944 million, and $870 million, respectively.
IT firms focus on local hiring
While the mid-caps appear undisturbed, their larger peers have been silent on the impact of new visa norms.
The top five homegrown IT outsourcers, including Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Infosys Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd, Wipro Ltd, and Tech Mahindra Ltd, received 11,711 H-1B visa approvals in the first six months of 2025, showed USCIS data. That compares with about 3,426 such approvals for their mid-cap peers during the period.
Shares of the top five were trading between 1% and 3.5% lower over the previous close as of 12:21 p.m. on Monday.
The Trump administration’s H-1B visa fee hike is aimed at further reducing the influx of foreigners into the US. However, in its statement on 20 September statement, IT industry lobby Nasscom pointed out: “[I]t is also important to note that India and India-centric companies have been steadily reducing their reliance on these visas through increased local hiring in recent years.”
“Moreover, with the fee being applicable from 2026 onward, gives companies time to further step up skilling programs in US and enhance local hiring,” Nasscom said in a separate statement on Monday. “The industry is spending more than a billion USD on local upskilling and hiring in the US, and the number of local hires has increased tremendously.”
While acknowledging that Indian IT vendors now rely less on H-1B visas, Motilal Oswal Financial Services said Trump’s move could lead to homegrown IT firms avoiding H-1B visas or could hurt the profitability of the five largest IT firms by 0.85% in the next fiscal year.
“If an IT company were to apply for 5,000 H-1Bs in FY27, the annual fee alone would amount to USD500m (5,000 × USD100k). Given the magnitude of this fee, it is likely that Indian IT companies will avoid new H-1B filings altogether, opting instead to expand offshore delivery or increase local hiring,” said Motilal Oswal analysts Abhishek Pathak, Keval Bhagat and Tushar Dhonde wrote in a 21 September note.
Girish Pai, head of equity research at Bank of Baroda Capital Markets, said in a 21 September note, “If the top 5 Indian players apply for 7500 new H1-B visas (half of that of an annualized number of ~15600 in FY25 – US fiscal, which includes both new and renewals), and the costs do not get passed on to customers, there will be an overall adverse impact of ~85bps on the collective margins in FY27, ceteris paribus.”
However, Pramod Gubbi, founder of Marcellus Investment Managers, has a slightly different take. “Less than 5% of the overall workforce is on H-1B visas for both large- and mid-caps (IT firms) so there will not be much of a difference on the impact that each of these companies face.”
