H-1B Filings Drop Sharply at Walmart, Goldman as New Fees Bite
Cover image from businessinsider.com, which was analyzed for this article
New Trump administration restrictions on H-1B visas have sharply reduced petitions from tech giants, with Walmart's filings halving and drops at Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan while Citi sees gains. The changes lock some employers out of the program, impacting skilled worker hiring in AI and software sectors. This signals tighter immigration rules reshaping Big Tech talent pipelines.
PoliticalOS
Friday, April 10, 2026 — Tech
The Trump administration's $100,000 fee and higher-wage priority have measurably reduced new H-1B filings at several large retailers, banks and tech firms, with overall registrations falling 27 percent, yet demand still meets the annual cap and effects remain uneven. Smaller nonprofits and rural hospitals face the steepest barriers, while many large technology employers adapt by hiring workers already inside the United States. The reforms explicitly aim to protect American wages and curb past abuses; whether they ultimately expand domestic opportunity or constrain innovation in AI and specialized fields will be settled by labor-market data still emerging.
What outlets missed
All three outlets underplayed the explicit anti-fraud and wage-protection goals spelled out in the September 19, 2025 White House proclamation, which framed the fee as a direct response to documented program exploitation rather than an arbitrary cost increase. They also gave short shrift to confounding variables such as widespread 2025 tech and bank layoffs, post-pandemic hiring corrections, and the accelerating substitution of generative AI for certain coding and data roles. Nationwide certified LCA applications fell 23 percent overall with a 90.8 percent approval rate, according to DOL data via Financial Express, suggesting the drop was not isolated to the profiled firms or solely fee-driven. Finally, none noted that Walmart already employed roughly 2,390 H-1B workers mid-2025, meaning the filing decline affected only new hires against an established base, nor did they report that some startup executives viewed the fee as potentially reducing lottery competition and favoring U.S.-educated applicants.
Major employers face higher barriers to importing specialized talent under the Trump administration's tightened H-1B rules. A new $100,000 fee on certain new visas, combined with preferences for higher-wage roles, has contributed to a 27 percent drop in overall registrations for fiscal year 2026, according to USCIS data reported by India Today. The changes have slashed filings at Walmart, several Big Tech firms and Wall Street banks, while smaller nonprofits and rural hospitals report struggling to fill critical positions in teaching, medicine and software development.
The central tension lies in the trade-off: rules designed to shield American wages and curb program abuse now limit access for employers who say they cannot find equivalent domestic talent, particularly in AI and niche technical fields. The fee, imposed in September 2025 via presidential proclamation, applies only to workers entering from outside the United States. Companies hiring international students or others already in the country on different visas can often avoid it, according to multiple immigration lawyers cited across reports. Previously, total costs per visa averaged roughly $10,000.