New Delhi, Sept. 27 -- Best of the Week is a weekly newsletter by Siddharth Sharma/Shravani Sinha. Subscribe to Mint's newsletters to get them directly in your email inbox.

For thousands of Indians chasing the American dream, the H-1B visa has long been a golden ticket-a way to turn ambition into opportunity. But last week, the Trump administration dropped a bombshell: the application fee has jumped from $1,000 to a staggering $100,000. While it's a one-time charge, not an annual one, the sheer scale of the hike feels like a door slammed shut-especially for smaller businesses, schools, and healthcare institutions that simply can't shoulder such costs.

The irony? The US has thrived for decades on the brilliance of foreign talent-think Su...