Don’t want to pay the H1B $100K Fee? There is a way!
Folks on H1B Visas can be relocated to India with all employment benefits while continuing to work with your teams seamlessly. Your setup/fixed cost for this: ZERO!
Start hiring in 48 hoursHow Kaamwork supports seamless transition
Visa shock
The U.S. H-1B reform announced in September 2025 introduced a $100,000 fee for new H-1B petitions. For many companies, this is a tipping point: sponsoring a single new hire can now cost more than some small teams’ annual budgets.
Stark choice
If your roadmap depends on those hires, you face a stark choice. Pay a large, uncertain premium for a visa, or find a different path to keep people, projects, and product momentum intact.
Smart path
Kaamwork offers that path. Our Employer of Record platform lets you employ your people in India under your brand, with full managerial control, full compliance, and clear, predictable costs.
Seamless hiring
You keep the people and the IP. Kaamwork handles payroll, benefits, statutory filings, relocation logistics, and day-to-day HR operations. Start hiring in 48 hours. No entity. No visa gamble.
Why the H-1B reform matters now
The headline is simple. A $100,000 fee on new H-1B petitions substantially increases the cost of bringing talent to the U.S. But the operational impact runs deeper.
Employers must absorb a sudden six-figure expense for each new sponsored hire.
The lottery and cap system remain, so the fee buys nothing guaranteed.
Renewals are exempt, but travel, stamping, and re-entry questions create ongoing uncertainty.
Legal and administrative burdens have risen alongside the fee, making planning harder.
For many companies, the result is a painful equation: either accept much higher hiring costs or risk losing valuable employees to churn or competitors. Neither is attractive.
Real cost comparison:
H-1B vs hiring in India
To make good decisions, you need clear numbers. Here’s a practical, conservative comparison for a mid-level engineer.
H-1B in the U.S.
$150,000
Base salary and benefits
$100,000
New H-1B fee
$15,000–$25,000
Legal and admin
$10,000+
Office and relocation
$275,000–$285,000 per year
Approximate total
Same role employed in India via Kaamwork
$45,000–$60,000
India salary benchmark
$599 / month ($7,188/year)
Kaamwork flat EOR fee
included
Benefits and statutory compliance
$55,000–$70,000 per year
Approximate total
The math is compelling. Shifting the role to India under an EOR preserves continuity and reduces cost by roughly 70 to 80 percent. And critically, it removes immigration risk.
Kaamwork: the practical alternative to the visa model
Kaamwork is not outsourcing. We do not rent staff or split people across clients. We provide a legal, compliant employment wrapper in India while you retain control of hiring, management, and product delivery.
What that looks like in practice:
You run interviews. You select candidates. You own day-to-day work and performance reviews
Kaamwork signs local employment contracts and becomes the legal employer for payroll and statutory obligations.
Employees work on your systems and report to your managers. Your company retains IP and promotion decisions.
The result is simple: the people act and feel like your employees. The legal and administrative burden is removed from your plate.
How Kaamwork supports a seamless transition
We built the process around two priorities: speed and legal certainty. We also focus on the human side of relocation, because steady teams matter.
Onboarding
- Kaamwork employs your employees in India using employment agreements that your legal team can review and approve. Contracts include nondisclosure and IP assignment terms aligned to your standards. Onboarding includes hardware procurement, account setup, and a first-30-day plan so new arrangements do not slow productivity.
Salary & benefits benchmarking
- We provide market benchmarks for each role. You own the final compensation decision. Kaamwork recommends packages that are competitive in India while keeping your total cost predictable.
100% compliance
- From day one, we manage payroll, tax filings, Provident Fund contributions, ESIC filings, gratuity provisioning, and statutory reporting. We keep audit trails and documentation so your finance and legal teams can verify everything quickly.
EOR platform transparency
- Our tech platform shows salaries, benefits, reimbursements, leaves, and payroll runs in real time. Your managers and HR see the same records Kaamwork uses. No black boxes.
Relocation support
- We help employees and families secure housing, open bank accounts, enroll in medical insurance, and access local orientation. We can also arrange office space and equipment where needed.
Managerial control
- You keep full authority over reporting lines, deliverables, appraisals, promotions, and exits. Kaamwork handles local employment law and day-to-day HR tasks, not strategic or product decisions.
Speed
- Candidate shortlists typically arrive within 48 hours. Hiring and compliance setup can be completed in a matter of days. Many clients onboard former H-1B employees in under two weeks.
Benefits for employers and employees
Employers gain more than cost savings. Here are the practical advantages that matter in a boardroom.
For Employers
Retain high performers without paying the $100,000 surcharge.
Avoid entity setup costs and delays. Incorporation can take months and cost hundreds of thousands.
Predictable, flat pricing with no hidden markups. You pay salaries and a transparent EOR fee.
Faster time to productivity. Less time spent on immigration or local incorporation means faster product cycles.
Lower attrition. Kaamwork’s retention programs and localized HR reduce voluntary churn, keeping institutional knowledge inside your company.
Easy path to scale. Start with a handful of hires and expand to a formal entity later if you choose.
For Employees
Career continuity. They keep their roles, team relationships, and progression pathways.
Reduced stress. Visa uncertainty and lottery outcomes are removed from their life decisions.
Competitive, locally appropriate compensation and statutory benefits.
Family stability through relocation support that handles housing, insurance, and schooling needs.
Psychological safety. Employees feel like part of your company rather than a vendor’s bench.
Addressing common concerns
A simple roadmap for transition
Kaamwork's methodology is designed to go quickly without missing anything.
This is how we help with the transition:
Audit roles
Determine employees affected by H-1B changes and flag critical roles.
Compensation planning
Offer India-based pay and benefits guidelines; you decide what to finalise.
Contracts and compliance
Prepare and review employment contracts, ensuring payroll, taxes, and statutory contributions (PF, ESIC, gratuity) are effective from day one.
Onboarding logistics
Manage laptops, HR induction, and local signups so work keeps going without interruption.
Relocation support
Support housing, banking, insurance, and family requirements to facilitate the move.
Integration
Staff report to your managers, use your workflows, while Kaamwork takes care of HR and compliance.
Scale
Expand teams easily once stable, using the same setup.
Client experiences
Why Kaamwork matters now
The H-1B reform makes one thing clear. Visa policy is a variable you cannot control. You can, however, control where your people work legally and how you invest in their continuity. Kaamwork removes the political risk and replaces it with speed, compliance, and managerial control.
If you need to protect product timelines, maintain team continuity, and reduce cost, this is the practical alternative.
Next steps — how to get started
If your business is affected by the H-1B reforms, acting quickly is critical. Waiting could mean losing top talent or facing delays in active projects.
Talk to our team
Arrange a brief consultation to discuss roles impacted and alternatives
Get benchmarks
See transparent compensation packages designed for India's market
Transition smoothly
Keep your employees working without legal or compliance complexities
The message is direct: you retain control, employees remain engaged, and Kaamwork eliminates the roadblocks.
Schedule a consultation with KaamworkSecure your future beyond visas!
The September 2025 H-1B reform is a clear signal that relying on immigration policy for scale is no longer a stable strategy. Companies that want predictable growth, lower cost, and uninterrupted product velocity need a different approach.
Kaamwork offers that approach. You keep control of hiring, product ownership, and employee careers. Kaamwork provides compliance, payroll, relocation, and HR operations. Together, this combination lets you retain top talent, protect IP, and build a scalable team in India without the six-figure visa cost.
If you care about continuity, cost, and control, Kaamwork removes the visa obstacle so you can focus on what matters: building products and serving customers.