Return to US immediately or risk getting stranded: Microsoft, other companies tell H-1B workers

New York/Washington: Immigration attorneys and companies are cautioning H-1B visa holders against travelling outside the US amid President Donald Trump’s new plan to impose a USD 100,000 fee on the work visas, with many asking employees to return immediately to America or risk getting stranded.

In a significant development that will have an impact on Indian professionals working on H-1B visas in the US, Trump signed a proclamation Friday that restricts the entry into the United States of nonimmigrants working in a “speciality occupation” unless their H-1B petitions are accompanied or supplemented by a payment of USD 100,000. This proclamation will come into effect from 12:01 am September 21, 2025. Immigration attorneys and companies are sounding the alarm for H-1B visa holders or their family members currently outside the US for work or vacation, asking them to return to the US before the proclamation kicks in on September 21, essentially telling those outside the country to return within the next 24 hours or risk being stranded and denied entry into the US.

“H-1B visa holders who are out of the US on business or vacation will get stranded unless they get in before midnight September 21. H-1Bs still in India may have already missed the deadline as there is no way a direct flight from India will get in time,” eminent New York-based immigration attorney Cyrus Mehta said in a post on X.

“There may still be a way for an H-1B visa holder who is in India to arrive in California before midnight September 21, 2025,” Mehta said.

Users on social media posted excerpts of an internal email by Microsoft that asked its employees on H1B visas and their dependents to avoid travelling outside the US and return immediately before the September 21 deadline. The tech giant is understood to have told its employees to remain in the US for the “foreseeable future" to "avoid being denied reentry”.

Dependents of H-1B visa holders, who can stay in the US on H-4 visas, are also being asked to stay put in the country, even though the proclamation does not mention anything about H-1B dependents.

Companies are asking their employees, who are abroad, to return to the US before the September 21 deadline.

Cato Institute Director of Immigration Studies David Bier said in a post on X that Indian H-1B workers have "contributed an unfathomable amount" to America, including hundreds of billions in taxes, tens of billions more in fees, trillions in services. “Among the most peaceful, intelligent, interesting people to grace our shores. And what do we give back? Demonisation & discrimination…” “We have a set of laws mandating discriminatory treatment at every stage of the legal immigration process, particularly for Indians. They've been barred from adjusting to permanent residence for decades based on nothing more than their birthplace,” Bier said.  “The result is that these people are subject to a unique set of discriminatory policies that mandate their employers to advertise their jobs to others, require them to pay expensive fees and lawyers, prohibit easily changing job sites or job duties. It is unimaginable” he said adding that the kids of Indian workers “who came here with them as elementary school students are Americans in ever single way you can imagine, but the law tells them to leave when they reach adulthood or literally win the lottery to get to stay.... and be as discriminated against as your parents.” “Now Trump comes along and signs an executive order that officially villainises this population, as job thieves, prosperity burglars, legal system cheats, security threats. Possibly the most law-abiding, hard-working, peaceful, productive population in all of US history!” Bier added in the X post.