Manager Warns of Growing H-1B Bias Against Indian Tech Workers in U.S.

(UNITED STATES) An Indian tech manager working in the United States 🇺🇸 said in November 2025 that Indian tech workers on H-1B visas are facing growing hostility at the office and online, describing what he called “unfairly judged and isolated” treatment as debate over high-skilled immigration sharpens inside major companies.

The manager, who asked not to be named due to fear of retaliation, said claims that Indians only hire other Indians or carry caste-based discrimination into U.S. workplaces have spread more loudly this year, fueling fresh H-1B bias that he sees as both personal and systemic.

Manager’s experience and response

He said he rose from L5 to L7 while mentoring diverse teams and making hiring decisions based on skills and performance, not identity. Yet he has felt blamed for broader frustrations about outsourcing, layoffs, and headcount freezes, even when his own record shows mixed teams and fair reviews.

“I hire and promote on merit,” he said, rejecting accusations that Indian managers favor insiders. The manager linked the rise in workplace bias to louder online narratives and a tougher climate for visa holders during a year when immigration policies and corporate strategies have shifted.

Regulatory and corporate context

Those tensions are not happening in a vacuum. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has stepped up reviews of recruiting and staffing practices, including investigations into claims that some companies, such as Meta, preferred visa holders over U.S. citizens for certain roles.

While the EEOC scrutiny aims to stop discrimination, the manager said these probes have also sharpened internal debates. Some colleagues read investigations as proof that hiring was already skewed in favor of H-1B workers, which can then spill into daily interactions and performance discussions — deepening workplace bias.

Policy changes and cost pressures

The H-1B program remains a legal pathway for “specialty occupation” workers at U.S. employers, with demand far outstripping supply. But 2025 has brought policy changes that are feeding anxiety:

• According to the manager and multiple industry conversations, the program is set for a steep fee hike to $100,000 for new applications effective from the FY27 lottery cycle.
• He believes this change will reshape hiring choices and amplify internal resentment toward visa holders even as it reduces sponsorships.

As he put it: “When the price to bring in talent rises that much, people will say we took opportunities before. Now they’ll say we’re not worth the cost.”

Corporate hiring shifts and downstream effects

Corporate planning is already shifting, he said, with big U.S. tech firms — Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Apple — expected to trim new H-1B sponsorships for fresh hires while keeping key existing staff.

Potential consequences:

• Smaller pipelines for early-career Indian tech workers who relied on campus hiring or junior transfers.
• Indian IT service providers, which had already reduced heavy H-1B use, still depend on the category for U.S. client projects but may move more work to India-based global capability centers.
• Reduced onshore roles and travel opportunities, increasing doubt about who gets to sit in core product teams in the United States.

Workplace climate and everyday interactions

Inside offices, these shifts have personal effects. The manager described a growing sense that H-1B colleagues — Indians in particular — must “prove their neutrality” in every hiring and performance decision.

He reported:

• Casual remarks about “visa folks” have become more common in meetings.
• Online posts claiming “Indians only hire Indians” now appear in team chats or private forums.
• He shares anonymized hiring data showing broad mixes of backgrounds on his teams, but said such evidence rarely changes minds: “People will say the bias is invisible. Then when they don’t see it, they call it hidden.”

“I hire and promote on merit.”
“No favoritism. No discrimination. Full stop.”

He enforces that rule while pushing back against assumptions about caste and South Asia–specific social hierarchies mapping neatly onto U.S. office behavior. He called such assumptions “hurtful and wrong.”

Broader forces fueling the fragile climate

Advocates say the climate is fragile because immigration policy debates blend with broader economic pressures:

• Recent reorganizations and long hiring freezes in some divisions.
• Pressure to cut costs, which can make visa programs an easy scapegoat in office disputes.
• Analysis by VisaVerge.com finds political debate around high-skilled visas has become more pointed, with claims that they undercut wages or create unfair hiring preferences — often circulating without shared facts.

That mix allows stereotypes to flourish and can frame Indian tech workers as a distinct group, even when they follow the same rules and performance targets as others.

Company responses and safeguards

Companies are seeking to manage the risks with actions such as:

• HR reminders to document hiring criteria and calibrate performance ratings across geographies and identities.
• Private urging by senior leaders to be cautious in how teams discuss visa topics, to avoid complaints or legal exposure.
• Training and clearer standards — measures the manager supports — but he fears the climate is sliding toward suspicion first and evidence later.

Career recalibration and migration decisions

As policy changes play out, workers are recalibrating career plans:

• Some Indian engineers who once planned to relocate to the U.S. now question the trade-offs if sponsorships shrink and team cultures feel hostile.
• Others consider staying remote in India while working for U.S. product groups — which may offer interesting projects but limit in-person exposure and growth with U.S.-based leaders.
• A subset of U.S.-based managers expect to prioritize internal transfers over new visa cases if budgets force choices, potentially sidelining recent graduates from India who counted on their first break.

Disagreements on causes and possible solutions

Not everyone agrees on the causes. Different viewpoints include:

• Some employees argue teams tilt too heavily toward a single nationality and want stronger guardrails to ensure broad access.
• Others say the real issue is not nationality but a broken pipeline that over-relies on referrals, which can cluster by school or prior employer.

The manager said he’s open to stronger checks if they are applied equally and don’t assume bad faith by Indian tech workers. He emphasized his mentorship of junior colleagues from multiple countries to counter perceptions of closed networks and to show that skill development is shared across teams.

Where to find official guidance

For workers seeking clarity on rules and employer duties, official guidance on H-1B categories is available from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services:

• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Closing note on the human cost

Even with clear guidance, the manager said the human cost of workplace bias is real. The hardest part is the lingering doubt after a missed invite or a tense meeting.

“It’s the silence. You wonder if you’re being judged for your work or your visa.”

In a year marked by policy shifts and internal audits, that question shows why the debate over H-1B bias affects not only legal memos and corporate plans, but daily office life for Indian tech workers and their teams.