'Return to the US by tomorrow...', Microsoft advises employees after visa fee hike

US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Friday that will increase H-1B visa fees to US$100,000 annually. Trump said the country will use this amount to cut taxes and pay down debt. "We think it will be very successful," Trump said. Trump's move is feared to adversely affect Indian professionals working in the United States.

White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf said the H-1B non-immigrant visa program is one of the most abused visa systems in the country's current immigration system. He said this allows highly skilled workers to come to the US to work in fields where Americans are not employed. The Trump administration said the $100,000 fee was imposed to ensure that those being brought into the country are truly highly skilled and do not replace American workers.

"We need workers, we need excellent workers, and this will ensure that happens," Trump said while signing the proclamation in the Oval Office in the presence of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Lutnick said that the employment-based green card program admits 281,000 people per year, who earn an average of $66,000 per year and are five times more likely to be eligible for government assistance programs.

"So we were recruiting the bottom quartile, below the average American," he said. It was illogical, the only country in the world hiring the bottom quartile. We're going to stop doing that. We'll hire only exceptional people at the top, not those who are trying to take jobs away from Americans. They will start businesses and create jobs for Americans. And this program will raise over $100 billion for the US Treasury.