Bengaluru: “My daughter hasn’t visited me in three years, and now I don’t know when I can see her again.” With her voice trembling, Padma (name changed), a resident of Marathahalli, summed up the despair felt by thousands of Indian parents after Donald Trump’s Sept 19 presidential proclamation that rewrote the rules of the H-1B visa programme.The order, effective from Sept 21, requires US employers to pay a staggering $100,000 annual fee for every H-1B petition. Workers outside the country may be denied re-entry unless this payment is made. While exemptions exist for roles deemed in the ‘national interest’, Indian tech professionals, who account for more than 70% of H-1B holders, are dealing with unannounced chaos in life. Global tech giants, including Microsoft, Meta and Amazon, have issued urgent advisories asking H-1B and H-4 visa holders currently abroad to return to the US before the deadline. Employees already in the US have been warned against international travel to avoid re-entry complications. Padma told TOI, “My daughter went to the US to pursue her master’s about three years ago and also did an internship there. She came home after her first semester during the Christmas holidays. Since then, she has been busy trying to get a job and an H-1B visa. Now that she finally has it, she thought of coming home, but this new rule makes it impossible. She couldn’t come when her grandmother passed away, and now her grandfather is very ill. She may not get a chance to see him in his last years. If she quits and comes home, she might never be able to go back. All the money we spent on her education and her hard work might go to waste,” she said. For families in Bengaluru, long-awaited reunions now look increasingly uncertain. Raghunandan Murthy of Jayanagar, a retired PSU employee, said his son had to cancel plans to attend his grandfather’s death ceremony. “My father, who was 82 years old, passed away on Friday. My son chose to fly down to pay respects to his favourite ‘thata’, but now he had to cancel it because of this order and the risks are too high. We don’t know when we might see him again,” said the teary-eyed 65-year-old Murthy. Adding: “One stroke of Trump’s pen has disrupted everything,” he said. Siblings are also feeling the pain of separation. Shreya Iyer of Koramangala had been counting down to her graduation ceremony with her brother. “He promised to come, and we were all so excited. Now he says it’s impossible. We feel cheated by a system that treats families as collateral damage,” she said. For older parents, the uncertainty feels especially cruel. Lakshmi Narayanan, 72, of Sarjapur, said: “I am too weak to travel abroad, and if my son cannot come here, I may never see him again. It feels like our family bond is being broken by politics.” As Meera (name changed) of Whitefield puts it: “This is not just about jobs or fees—it is about families being torn apart overnight. The cost is more than money; it is emotional.”
