Washington DC - Following reports that large US companies were scrambling to deal with a hefty new fee on visas for qualified foreign workers, the White House on Saturday stressed that this was a one-time charge.

On Friday, President Donald Trump unexpectedly imposed a $100,000 fee on H-1B visas, which previously only carried a processing fee of a few thousand dollars. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick spoke of "$100,000 a year" at the White House event presenting the executive order.

This sparked panic among large companies, which reportedly advised foreign employees to remain in the country and urged those currently abroad to return within 24 hours.

An Amazon internal memo said staff unable to return in time should stay put until further notice, according to Business Insider, which cited employees and internal communications at Amazon, Meta and Microsoft, as well as JPMorgan.

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On Saturday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stressed that $100,000 was "NOT an annual fee. It's a one-time fee that applies only to the petition."

"Those who already hold H-1B visas and are currently outside of the country right now will NOT be charged $100,000 to re-enter," she wrote on X.

"H-1B visa holders can leave and re-enter the country to the same extent as they normally would; whatever ability they have to do that is not impacted by yesterday’s proclamation," Leavitt continued. "This applies only to new visas, not renewals, and not current visa holders."

According to Business Insider, large US companies fear that hiring foreign employees could become much more expensive or even impossible in the future if they want to re-enter the US after a stay abroad.

The New York Times cited government data showing that, in June, more than 10,000 people were working in the US on H-1B visas at Amazon, while Microsoft and Meta had around half that number.

Lutnick said the change was meant to make it too costly for US companies to bring inexperienced employees into the country for training, which should lead to more domestic hires.