February 20, 2026

Google Expands in India to Avoid Trump’s $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee

Another Trump Executive Order backfires spectacularly.

H-1B FAQ

Please consider the US Immigration Service H-1B FAQ

On Friday, Sept. 19, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed a Proclamation, “Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers,” that took an important, initial, and incremental step to reform the H-1B visa program to curb abuses and protect American workers.

This Proclamation:

Requires a $100,000 payment to accompany any new H-1B visa petitions submitted after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on Sept. 21, 2025. This includes the 2026 lottery, and any other H-1B petitions submitted after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on Sept. 21, 2025.

Authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State to coordinate to take all necessary and appropriate action to implement this Proclamation.

Alphabet Plots Big Expansion in India as US Restricts Visas

On February 3, 2026, Bloomber reported Alphabet Plots Big Expansion in India as US Restricts Visas

Alphabet Inc. is plotting to dramatically expand its presence in India, with the possibility of taking millions of square feet in new office space in Bangalore, India’s tech hub.

Google’s parent company has leased one office tower and purchased options on two others in Alembic City, a development in the Whitefield tech corridor, totaling 2.4 million square feet, according to people familiar with the deal. The first tower is expected to open to employees in the coming months, while construction on the remaining two is set to conclude next year.

Options in the real estate industry give would-be tenants the exclusive right to rent, or in some cases buy, a property at a predetermined price within a specific time frame. It’s also possible Alphabet will not exercise the option to use the additional towers.

If it does take all of the space, the complex could accommodate as many as 20,000 additional staff, which could more than double the company’s footprint in India, said the people, asking not to be identified because the plans aren’t public. Alphabet currently employs around 14,000 in the country, out of a global workforce of roughly 190,000.

Google rivals including OpenAI and Anthropic PBC have recently set up shop in the country, with Anthropic appointing former Microsoft Corp. executive Irina Ghose to lead its India operations in January. “India has a real opportunity to shape how AI is built and deployed at scale,” Ghose said at the time.

For US tech giants, India offers a strategic workaround to Washington’s tightening immigration regime. The Trump administration has moved to sharply hike the fees for H-1B work visas — potentially to $100,000 per application — making it harder for companies to bring Indian engineers to the US.

This shift is fueling the growth of so-called global capability centers, or technology hubs operated by multinational corporations across sectors from software and retail to finance. Many of these centers are now focused on building AI products and infrastructure. Nasscom, India’s IT industry trade group, estimates such centers will employ 2.5 million people by 2030, up from 1.9 million today.

Google is already a major player in this shift. Last year, it opened its largest campus in Bangalore, complete with indoor mini golf, pickle ball courts and cafeterias serving cardamom tea.

For AI giants like Alphabet, India’s appeal is not just its talent pool. Tens of millions of new internet users come online annually, becoming potential customers for chatbots and AI assistants, as well as trying out new AI coding tools.

The India headcount for the US tech giants Facebook, Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Netflix Inc. and Google collectively grew by 16% over the last 12 months, the biggest jump in a three-year period, according to talent solutions and staffing company, Xpheno Pvt.

Congratulations to Trump

Congratulations to Trump for creating as many as 600,000 jobs.

Well sort of. Those jobs are in India.

In October, Google had said it would invest $15 billion over five years to set up an artificial intelligence data center in India’s southern state of Andhra Pradesh, its biggest ever investment in the nation.

That’s $15 billion there, not here.

Q: What do we call this?
A: Winning, silly.

It’s not like we need workers here, spending money in the US.