Washington: U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed a proclamation to impose an annual fee of US$100,000 for an H-1B nonimmigrant visa application for highly skilled foreign workers, as his administration seeks to ensure tech firms help train Americans rather than bringing in foreign workers.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the fee is expected to put a heavy burden on Korean companies that need to bring their skilled workers into the United States on a stable visa program to set up and run factories in the U.S. to proceed with their investment projects.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick elaborated on the fee, calling for tech companies to train Americans and stop bringing in foreign workers to take American jobs. "The whole idea is no more will these big-tech companies or other big companies train foreign workers. They have to pay the government $100,000, then they have to pay the employee. So it's just not economic," Lutnick said, standing next to Trump during a press availability at the White House.

"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. That's the policy here. $100,000 a year for H-1B visas," he added.