India: Minimum Salary Level for Employment Visas Significantly Increased

Quick heads-up: if you or someone you know is dealing with an Indian Employment Visa right now, the salary bar just went up. A lot.

The minimum annual salary needed to qualify has jumped from INR 16,25,000 to INR 24,00,000. That’s roughly a 47.7% increase, and it’s happening with immediate effect.

No big press conference, no fancy announcement. This is the kind of change that sneaks up on people, which is exactly why I wanted to flag it.

So what actually happened?

According to immigration advisory firm Fragomen, the new, higher salary threshold has already started showing up on residence permit endorsements issued by local Foreigners Regional Registration Offices in India. Officials have also verbally confirmed the change to immigration professionals.

But here’s the odd bit: there’s no formal written notification from India’s Ministry of Home Affairs yet. So the change is real and already being applied on the ground, but the paperwork explaining it hasn’t caught up.

This matters because a lot of people rely on official notifications to understand exceptions, special categories, and exact wording of new rules. Right now, nobody outside government has that level of detail. We’re all going by what’s being observed in practice.

Who does this actually affect?

This is about foreign nationals who need an Employment Visa to work inside India, and the Indian companies that sponsor them. If you’re an employer in India hiring foreign staff, or you’re a foreign professional hoping to renew your work visa there, this change lands directly on you.

For readers in Kuwait, this is mostly relevant if you or your family have business ties to India, or if you know someone – maybe a relative or a colleague – who’s trying to get or renew an Employment Visa to work in India. It doesn’t touch Kuwait’s own visa system at all, but with such a large Indian community here, a lot of people will have a personal or family connection to this news.

Companies sponsoring foreign employees in India may now need to raise salaries just to keep those employees eligible. That pushes up hiring and retention costs, and it could make some positions harder to fill with foreign talent if budgets don’t stretch that far.

If you’ve been keeping an eye on Kuwait’s own visa salary caps, this is a reminder that these kinds of threshold jumps aren’t unique to one country. Governments review these numbers every so often, and when they do, the increase can be steep.

What happens next?

Fragomen says further details are expected once the Ministry of Home Affairs releases its official notification. That notification should spell out things like exemptions, specific job categories, and how the rule applies to edge cases. Until then, employers and applicants are working off what’s being observed at FRRO offices rather than a clear written rule.

If you’re an employer in India with Employment Visa applications or renewals coming up, it’s worth reviewing compensation packages now rather than waiting for the official paperwork. Getting caught out after filing could mean delays or rejections.

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