September 20, 2025

Microsoft just dropped a bombshell alert to its employees on H-1B and H-4 visas! The tech giant has advised them to return to the United States immediately—before the September 21 deadline. Why the rush? After this date, companies must shell out a huge $100,000 every year for each H-1B visa worker. According to an internal email seen by Reuters, Microsoft said, “H-1B visa holders should stay in the US for the foreseeable future. Also recommend H-4 visa holders remain in the US. Strongly recommend H-1B and H-4 visa holders return to the US tomorrow before the deadline.” Microsoft isn’t taking chances! This visa shake-up comes after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on September 19. This order imposes the hefty $100,000 annual fee on H-1B visa applications. The move has already sent waves through the technology sector, where Indian and Chinese skilled workers play starring roles. Trump didn’t hide his excitement, saying, “I think they're going to be very happy.” Meanwhile, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick added a spicy comment: “If you're going to train somebody, you're going to train one of the recent graduates from one of the great universities across our land. Train Americans. Stop bringing in people to take our jobs.” White House staff secretary Will Scharf blasted the current system, saying, “One of the most abused visa systems is the H1-B non-immigrant visa programme. This is supposed to allow highly skilled labourers who work in fields that Americans don't work in to come into the United States of America. What this proclamation will do is raise the fee that companies pay to sponsor H-1B applicants to $100,000. This will ensure that the people they're bringing in are actually very highly skilled and that they're not replaceable by American workers.” To get a sense of the scale, India took home the lion’s share of H-1B visas last year—71% of all approvals. China was far behind with 11.7%. Top US companies are racing to secure these precious visas. In the first half of 2025 alone, Amazon (plus its cloud arm AWS) got more than 12,000 approvals, while Microsoft and Meta each secured over 5,000. Now with the new $100,000 fee, the tech world is on edge. Will this send Indian and Chinese talent rushing back home? Or force companies to train American workers like never before? Only time will tell. But one thing’s for sure—visa drama just got a spicy new twist!

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Tags: Microsoft, H-1b visa, Trump executive order, Visa fee hike, Indian tech workers, H-4 visa,