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DHS's proposed rule would attach a $103,265 fee to every cap-subject H-1B petition, payable at filing. Photo: Mohammadmahdi Dourani / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).
Read the cover storyThe Cover Story ·Visas & Law
The $103,265 H-1B fee: what DHS's new rule means for Indians
DHS has proposed a $103,265 fee on every cap-subject H-1B petition — charged at filing, on top of every other fee, and aimed squarely at new hires. Indians take 71% of H-1B approvals. What the rule says, who is exempt, and why it follows the struck-down $100,000 proclamation.
Recent Cover Stories
Previously featured
Hall of Fame
Figures of the diaspora whose work the wider public has not yet adequately recognised
Inaugural Class of 2026 — coming soon.
The first cohort of inductees is being researched. The class will be announced as a cover-story feature later this year.
See the Founders' Roll →Archive
The Founders' Roll
Figures of the diaspora whose recognition is already universal · hover to pause
Kamala Harris
Politician, lawyer
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Rishi Sunak
Politician
Dadabhai Naoroji
Politician, economist, social reformer
Cheddi Jagan
Politician, dentist
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Sir Anerood Jugnauth
Statesman, lawyer
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Sundar Pichai
CEO, Alphabet/Google
Satya Nadella
CEO, Microsoft
Indra Nooyi
Former CEO, PepsiCo
Lakshmi Mittal
Steel magnate, ArcelorMittal
Amartya Sen
Economist, philosopher
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Astrophysicist
Har Gobind Khorana
Biochemist
Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
Structural biologist
Sir Salman Rushdie
Novelist
Sir V. S. Naipaul
Novelist, essayist
Jhumpa Lahiri
Novelist, short-story writer
Mira Nair
Filmmaker
Sir Anish Kapoor
Sculptor
Kalpana Chawla
Astronaut, aerospace engineer
Capt Sunita Williams
Astronaut, US Navy
Sir Ben Kingsley
Actor
Pandit Ravi Shankar
Sitar maestro, composer
Mindy Kaling
Writer, producer, actor
Basdeo Panday
Politician, lawyer, union organiser
The Series Shelf
All series →The flagship series
5 of 5 published
The OCI's Guide to India
A reference series for the Indian diaspora navigating life back home — the rules, the routes, the practical work.
About the series →Also on the shelf
- The Yoga ConversationDiaspora Dreams interviews the teachers, scholars, and practitioners shaping how the yoga tradition lives outside India.4/4
- The Masters Who Crossed the OceanTwelve Indian masters of the long twentieth century who carried yoga and Indian spirituality across the world — published one a day.12/12
- Children of the GirmitThe Girmitiya diaspora, one country at a time — how the descendants of indenture built nations across the old plantation world.6/6
- The Living GurusThe present-tense companion to The Masters Who Crossed the Ocean — today's Indian spiritual leaders and the global movements they command.7/7
- The Diaspora PlateHow Indian food remade itself abroad — the dishes migration invented, from the British curry house to the Trinidadian roti shop.6/6
- Power AbroadThe Indian diaspora's rise to political power — the prime ministers, presidents and leaders of Indian descent across the world.6/6
- Mother TonguesWhat happened to Indian languages abroad — the tongues the diaspora kept, lost, and remade.6/6
- Temples of the DiasporaA diaspora announces its permanence in stone — the great temples the Indian world built abroad, and what they mean.6/6
- The NRI Money GuideThe money companion to the OCI's Guide — one careful explainer on each financial system an overseas Indian has to navigate back home.6/6
- The CrossingThe Indian student's journey abroad, end to end — choosing the country, clearing the visa, finding the money, and weighing the return.5/5
- The Diaspora ScreenIndian cinema and the diaspora — the films made for us abroad, the film-makers we produced, and the stories the screen tells about leaving.8/8
From the desks
6 desks · latest
Politics
Kanishka Narayan: from Muzaffarpur to Britain's first Minister for AI
24 Jul 2026Read →Business
India–UK trade deal (CETA): what it changes for the diaspora in 2026
24 Aug 2026Read →Opinion
Generation Desi: How Indian Diaspora Gen Z Is Rewriting the Rules of Identity, Career & Culture Abroad
12 May 2026Read →Yoga & Spiritualism
Siddheshwar Brahmrishi Gurudev: the 'Siddhguru' who built a following online
13 Jul 2026Read →Education
America's new four-year rule: what the student-visa cap means for Indians
24 Jul 2026Read →Young Diasporas
Onam, explained for a child who has never seen Kerala
12 Aug 2026Read →
Every story lives at its desk — Politics · Business · Opinion · Yoga & Spiritualism · …
The interview voice
In Conversation
Healing, Conscious Living & Transformational Retreats
🌿 PART 1: Awakening & Life Path Q: You’ve shared that your spiritual awareness began early in this lifetime—what did that experience feel like as it unfolded? Yes… from a very young age, I was aware of many things that others around me didn’t seem to notice. I could see beings—spirits, entities from another dimension—
Exploring Yoga with Malin Loibner: Insights from a Youthful Practitioner
Questionnaire for Ms. Malin Loibner for DIASPORA DREAM Q1. What initially drew you to Yoga? Can you share a brief overview of your journey? My journey with Yoga began at a tender age, as I mimicked my mother’s practice while learning to use my feet. Over time, Yoga became a constant companion, offering me a […]
Exclusive Interview: Carla Natario Reflects on Her Yogic Journey
Q1. What initially sparked your interest in Yoga, and how did your journey begin? My venture into Yoga commenced unexpectedly during my formative years at the gym. While primarily dedicated to physical fitness, I chanced upon a Yoga session led by a teacher from the esteemed Sivananda lineage. This class offered a comp
Latest
Form 15CA/15CB is now Form 145/146: what NRIs need to know in 2026
From 1 April 2026, Form 15CA became Form 145 and Form 15CB became Form 146 under the Income-tax Act, 2025. For NRIs and OCIs sending money out of India, the process is unchanged — only the form numbers are new. What to file now.
Cities from sand: how the oil boom took millions of Indians to the Gulf
It is the newest of India's great migrations and by the numbers the biggest: some nine million Indians in the Gulf. How a change in the price of oil in 1973 rebuilt Kerala, created a remittance economy — and left a harder story in the labour camps.
From the camel trains to the classroom: how Indians came to Australia
Indians opened the Australian outback on the backs of camels — and then a nation founded on keeping them out spent seventy years trying to shut the door. From the 'Ghans' and the dictation test to a country where India is now the fastest-growing source of migrants.
Before Silicon Valley: how Indian migration to America began
A century before the H-1B visa and Silicon Valley, the first Indians in America were Punjabi Sikh farmers — met by mob riots, a Supreme Court that ruled them not 'white,' and a door that stayed shut for decades. How the migration began, and how close it came to never happening.
It is not arrival. It is something like return — a word the English language uses thinly. The diaspora has its own word for it; everyone uses a different one.
‘Itihaas ki Sarhadein’: Rashmi Chaudhari and Devendra Choubey on the frontiers of history
A new Hindi book by historian Rashmi Chaudhari and JNU's Devendra Choubey — ‘Itihaas ki Sarhadein’ (Prakashan Sansthan, 2026) — argues that history is never bound by borders, and that the rural, pre-1857 past cannot be grasped by conventional historiography alone. A book note, in English and Hindi.
‘Yah, Vah Desh To Nahin’: Devendra Choubey's social journey through Mauritius
A new Hindi travelogue by the noted writer Devendra Choubey — ‘Yah, Vah Desh To Nahin: Mauritius, a social journey’ (Aadhar Prakashan, 2026) — reads the island not through its temples and festivals but through the freedom struggle of its African slaves and Indian indentured labourers. A book note, in English and Hindi.
The $100,000 H-1B fee, one year on: where it stands for Indians
A year after Washington attached a one-time $100,000 fee to new H-1B petitions — a visa that is more than 70% Indian — the charge is still in force and still in court. What it does, who it spares, and where the fight stands.
September 2026 US visa bulletin: what Indians should expect from the FY2027 reset
September closes a brutal US fiscal year for Indian green-card applicants — EB-2 and EB-5 India have been Unavailable since July. The October bulletin brings the FY2027 reset, when the categories are expected to reopen.
UAE widens its Golden Visa: more Indians now qualify for long-term residency
The UAE — home to the world's largest overseas Indian population after the US — has widened its 5- and 10-year Golden Visa to more professions in 2026, giving Indian workers a decade-long residency they hold in their own right.
Indian students in the US fell 6.9% — and the four-year rule lands on 15 September
The number of Indian students in the United States dropped to 352,644 in early 2026, down 6.9% year on year as visa screening tightened — and a rule capping most student stays at four years takes effect on 15 September.
Chhath, explained for a child who has never seen the Ganga
A festival with no temple, no idol and no priest — just a family, some water and the sun. Here is what Chhath means, when its four days fall in 2026, and how to give it to a child growing up a long way from any river.
The 'dunki' route: the deadly underside of the migration dream
It doesn't run through Ceuta. India's version of the migration crisis is the illegal 'dunki' route — a multi-country smuggling network that charges families ₹45–50 lakh, sends young men through the Darién jungle, and too often ends in a deportation flight, or worse.
Canada pauses parent and grandparent sponsorship for 2026
Canada has paused new intake to its Parents and Grandparents Program for the rest of 2026, IRCC said on 15 July — no new sponsors, though applications already filed continue. Indians are among the largest groups affected; the super visa remains the fallback.
India's consular services in Australia reopen after Delhi court voids the tender
A Delhi High Court ruling voided the tender for India's outsourced consular services in Australia, but let them keep running — and passport and visa services resumed on 23 July across six upgraded centres, from Sydney to Perth.
H-1B visa stamping in India in 2026: why the Dropbox door is closing
The 'Dropbox' interview waiver that let Indians renew a US visa by courier has been sharply narrowed, pushing most H-1B applicants back into consular interviews — and appointment backlogs at Indian posts now stretch into months, or longer.
EB-2 India goes unavailable: the July 2026 US green-card wall, explained
For the rest of the 2026 US fiscal year, no Indian applicant can be issued an EB-2 employment green card — the category went Unavailable in the July visa bulletin, EB-1 India retrogressed, and a new signature rule now lets USCIS deny filings after accepting them. What changed, and what to do.
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Kapil Dev, Gavaskar and Amarnath reunite in Singapore for the '83 Legends Tour
Mariners' Cricket Club Singapore will host the '83 Legends Tour from 7–9 August 2026, reuniting Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar and Mohinder Amarnath in what the club calls the first reunion of India's 1983 World Cup-winning squad in South-East Asia.
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Milind Soman joins Nutrazen to champion preventive health and healthy ageing
Fitness icon, supermodel and endurance athlete Milind Soman has become brand ambassador for Nutrazen, a plant-based, science-led nutraceutical company, in a partnership built around preventive health and healthy ageing.
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CodeSkin's CLARIFI AC Spot targets monsoon acne and pus-filled pimples
As homegrown Indian clean-beauty brands win a global following, CodeSkin's CLARIFI AC Spot offers the diaspora a targeted fix for the red, pus-filled pimples that flare up in humid weather — wherever home happens to be.
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