It Makes Very Little Sense to Study in the United States

… if H1B visas are still going to be hard to come by.

What happened in the last two weeks is of course the H1B visa fee for US companies increased 20 times (see TWITI #38 of 2025), and the US Government very blatantly said they want companies to prefer hiring Americans – however expensive and unqualified they may be.

Two days later, the US Government ‘clarified’ that this applies to only new visa applications.

This made me realize – and there’s a strong possibility that this new fee will be rolled back by the administration – but in case it doesn’t, why the hell will you want to send your child to the US to study?

For decades now a very large number of Indian students – and their parents – have tried to apply and get admission into American universities for bachelor’s and master’s. This is of course in the hopes of getting a job there after studying. And the job will only be possible if the hiring company applies for a H1B visa.

Now that hiring companies find it more difficult to obtain H1B visas (who in their right mind would pay $100k extra for a fresher?), the number of Indians being hired out of American universities will drastically reduce.

And jobless Indians will return to India, with debt.

Indians and our parents are smart enough to anticipate this.

There are many other options – within India itself, and in countries like Singapore and Australia and so on, to study with higher chances of staying back and working if the candidate so wishes to do so.

One group of people this H1B rule will affect in India – parents of would-be bachelors. Because they lose the chance to say “my son studying/ working in US of A”. To hell with these parents.