Year 2025 Throws Curveballs At NRIs!

NRIs faced the toughest time in year 2025. Since the inception of Trump administration at the beginning of the year, NRIs faced several challenges including increased surveillance of visas, social media vetting, tightened security at the borders and hiked visa fee. A slew of actions from the US administration pushed the NRIs into confusion and uncertainty over their future.

In January, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order that seeks to end the practice of birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants or temporary visa holders. This led to fear among the NRIs about the future of their children. However, lawsuits were filed in courts challenging to executive order.

Birthright citizenship, or jus soli (right of the soil), is not the norm globally. The US is one of about 30 countries that grant citizenship to babies born within the borders.

In other countries in Asia, Europe, and parts of Africa, jus sanguinis (right of blood) principle is followed which means children inherit their from their parents, but not from the place of their birth.

The fear of cancellation shifted to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in February. Workplaces were raided on a large-scale targeting businesses suspected of hiring undocumented workers and operations in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Denver and other areas. Trump also set the mass deportations goal and the administration tried to achieve it by suspending the asylum program and other programs that offered humanitarian relief during Biden’s rule. The immigration officials also placed several people in detention so much so that they said immigration detention had been filled to capacity, with 47,600 detainees.

Reports indicated that the enforcement officials arrested more people in the first 22 days of February 2025 than in any month in the last seven years.

In March, the H-1B lottery season was affected due to changed policy. The H-1B lottery season for Fiscal Year 2026 started in March 2025 when significant changes were introduced. The registration fee jumped from $10 to $215 per applicant. The lottery also became beneficiary-centric. Each person was treated equally, preventing employers from flooding the system with multiple entries for one person, thus making it fairer. Further, the USCIS applied new rules to ensure employers were compliant.

In April, foreign students bore the brunt of new enforcement policies. Over 6,000 student visas were reportedly revoked by late April, affecting many universities and foreign students, particularly Indians. Large-scale F-1 student visa revocations and SEVIS record terminations were witnessed citing violations like protests, DUIs, or alleged overstays, creating uncertainty for thousands of foreign students in the US. The immigration officials cited alleged overstays, criminal activity like assaults, burglary, and links to “support for terrorism”, including some pro-Palestine protest participation. Students faced travel complications because a revoked visa stamp means a student cannot travel abroad and re-enter the US on that visa.

Master’s graduations in the month were also impacted primarily from university-specific policies and widespread pro-Palestinian protests leading to potential disruptions, walkouts and changed commencement formats.

In June, the tech industry shocked the NRIs with mass lay offs. Tech giants including Microsoft, Intel and Google removed hundreds of their employees. Microsoft announced a job cut of 6,500 in May, affecting software engineers, product managers, technical program managers and marketers.

Intel revealed it plans to lay off 15-20 per cent of workers in Intel Foundry division. It confirmed that it plans to wind down its auto business. Google downsized its smart T division by 25% of its 300-member team to adjust its strategy.

In July, the US visa renewal dropbox facility for most of the non-immigrant visas was scrapped. This meant that most of the applicants and even children/elderly should attend in-person interviews at a US consulate or embassy for security enhancement, impacting Indian applicants significantly. This move aimed at enhancing security and strengthening the vetting process.

In August, the Trump administration first imposed a 25% tariff on Indian goods but doubled it to 50% effective August 27, 2205. Trump said the rise in tariff was aimed at punishing Delhi for buying Russian oil and weapons. Trump said that by purchasing goods from Russia, India has been constantly funding the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The 50% tariff on India is the highest in the world, affecting the eextiles, gems, leather, jewellery, marine, chemicals sectors.

In addition, there were widespread shipment issues with the US as several countries, including India, temporarily halted most postal services due to new US customs regulations that removed $800 duty-free exemption, creating confusion on duty collection mechanism.

Making matters worse, in September, the US has imposed a steep $1,00,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications, effective 21 September 2025, which is a massive increase from the previous $1,000-$5,000 range. The US government’s move is intended to curb exploitation of the program. At the same time, the hike in the fee is aimed at encouraging firms to hire US workers. For Indian tech professionals, this could impact costs, job mobility, and earnings.

In October, the US government has gone for the longest-ever shutdown, ending for 43 days, from October 1 to November 12. The shutdown forced around 1.4 million federal employees to go without pay for weeks, suspended food to many low-income Americans. It mainly impacted NRIs through delayed immigration processing, affecting visas, green cards, and citizenship.

In November, NRIs were shocked over reports on increasing cardiac issues among young Indians, leading to sudden deaths in several cases. Those who suffered cardiac arrest included 32-year-old Abhay Patnala, 18-year-old Vaishnav Krishnakumar, 36-year-old Karthik Arisetty, a Kashmiri student and others. The spike in NRI heart attack deaths raised concern among families in India.

The Trump administration continued its crackdown in December too. US Consulates in India rescheduled H-1B and H-4 visa interviews booked on/after Dec. 15, 2025 due to new mandatory social media screening. The changes in US visa screening procedures have disrupted travel plans of skilled workers. Any changes to the H-1B rules would have a major impact on the Indians, as they make up more than 70% of the recipients in recent years.

In yet another change in the policy, the US has decided to scrap the decades-old random lottery used to select the H-1B visa applicants and replace it with a weighted selection system that lays stress on higher-skilled and higher-paid applicants which could narrow opportunities for a large section of India’s US-bound workforce.

Overall, the year 2025 tested the patience and resilience of NRIs like never before. Delays, uncertainty and confusion ruled the visa issuance process, shattering the hopes of Indian youth dreaming to make it big in US. Yet, NRIs and US-bound Indian youth continue to put in their efforts to overcome the challenges and emerge successful.