H-1B Filings Drop Sharply at Walmart, Goldman Sachs After New Visa Fees

President Donald Trump's overhaul of the H-1B visa program is delivering early results with sharp declines in applications from some of America's largest employers, according to fresh Department of Labor data. The changes, which include a steep new $100,000 fee on fresh visas rolled out last September, appear to be prompting companies to rethink their heavy reliance on imported labor.

Walmart, the retail behemoth that has faced criticism for years over its staffing practices, filed just 312 certified H-1B applications in the final three months of 2025. That represents a drop of more than half from roughly 860 applications in the same quarter a year earlier and about 40 percent below levels from two years ago. The figures mark the first clear window into how Trump's policy adjustments are reshaping corporate behavior in the critical first quarter of the federal fiscal year.

Similar pullbacks are showing up across Wall Street. Major financial institutions that have long used the program to bulk up their technical and analytical ranks filed 10 percent fewer certified H-1B and related applications overall compared with the prior year. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase both recorded noticeable declines, though Citigroup went in the opposite direction with an increase. The mixed but downward trend among the biggest players suggests the higher costs are forcing even deep-pocketed firms to exercise more restraint.

The H-1B program, created three decades ago, was sold as a way to bring in highly skilled foreign workers when American talent supposedly could not be found. In practice it became a revolving door for corporations to access cheaper labor from overseas, often in technology roles, while American workers in those fields faced stagnant wages and fewer opportunities. Critics, including many in the America First movement, have argued for years that the system prioritized corporate convenience over domestic workers, with outsourcing firms and Silicon Valley giants gaming the lottery to import large numbers of employees at lower overall cost.

Trump's decision to attach real financial consequences to new visas is exposing just how dependent some employers had become. The fee has fundamentally altered the economics. What once looked like a bargain for bringing in overseas talent now carries a price tag that smaller organizations simply cannot meet.

That reality is hitting hardest outside the corporate penthouses. The New York Times reported this week on the Wayside Youth & Family Support Network, a Massachusetts nonprofit that operates a private special education school. For years the group recruited teachers from countries including Brazil, Mexico, and Germany through the H-1B pipeline because it struggled to find enough qualified locals. Now president Sara McCabe says the $100,000 fee has closed that door completely. The school has five teaching positions sitting empty and has turned away a dozen students whose families sought services the nonprofit can no longer provide at scale.

Rural hospitals and other nonprofits are encountering the same barrier. These smaller entities lack the massive human resources departments and legal budgets that let Walmart or Goldman Sachs absorb the new costs. The result is an uneven playing field where the largest and most profitable companies can still participate if they choose, while organizations serving some of the country's most vulnerable populations find themselves locked out entirely.

Whether this ultimately benefits American workers remains the central question. Supporters of the Trump changes argue that when companies face higher costs for foreign hires they will finally invest in recruiting, training, and retaining domestic talent. The sharp drop in applications from Walmart and parts of Wall Street offers some evidence that the policy is shifting incentives. Skeptics counter that certain specialized roles in education and healthcare will go unfilled, harming students and patients in the process.

The early data provides only a snapshot. H-1B applications can be filed throughout the year and the full fiscal picture will not emerge until later. Yet the direction is clear. After years of explosive growth in the program, major corporate users are dialing back. The Trump administration has succeeded in making the visa pipeline more expensive and less automatic, a move that aligns with long-standing concerns about the displacement of American professionals in fields ranging from software engineering to specialized medicine.

For communities that relied on the old system, the transition is painful. Nonprofits like Wayside now face difficult choices about expanding services or even maintaining current ones. But the broader recalibration may push employers across the board to look harder at the untapped pool of American graduates and experienced workers who have watched their industries steadily shift toward imported labor.

The H-1B program was never intended to serve as a permanent substitute for domestic workforce development. Trump's fee increase has forced a long-overdue reckoning with that reality. Whether corporations respond by hiring more Americans or simply passing costs along to consumers will determine if the reform delivers on its promise. For now the numbers show the era of easy, low-friction foreign hiring is meeting real resistance at the highest levels of American business.