H-1B Filings Drop Sharply at Walmart and Banks After Trump Visa Fees
Cover image from businessinsider.com, which was analyzed for this article
Trump administration changes have restricted H-1B visas, causing Walmart's filings to drop over 50% and declines at Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, while Citi saw gains. Employers face barriers to hiring skilled foreign workers in tech and finance. The policy prioritizes American labor amid ongoing employment debates.
PoliticalOS
Friday, April 10, 2026 — Business
Trump administration reforms, including a $100,000 fee on certain new H-1B visas and rules favoring higher wages, have produced measurable declines in applications at Walmart, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, though filings rose at Citi and several peers. The changes reflect a deliberate effort to protect American workers from program abuse but have created genuine hiring obstacles for rural hospitals, schools and smaller nonprofits unable to absorb the costs. Ultimately the data show an uneven shift rather than total shutdown, leaving the long-running debate over H-1B's net benefit to U.S. wages and innovation still unsettled.
What outlets missed
All three outlets underplayed the explicit rationale in the September 19, 2025 White House proclamation that the $100,000 fee and wage rules target documented H-1B abuse and wage suppression to protect American workers. Coverage also minimized that the 27 percent national drop in registrations stemmed from multiple anti-fraud reforms, including a beneficiary-centric lottery, not solely the fee. Business Insider analyses omitted Walmart's existing workforce of roughly 2,400 H-1B holders and the role of 2025 tech layoffs plus AI-driven efficiencies in reducing hiring needs across retail and finance. The New York Times cited an unverified "general agreement" among economists on net benefits while burying a startup CEO who supported the changes for reducing lottery competition; none of the pieces fully reconciled the mixed Wall Street results or noted that hospitals and universities often operate outside the annual cap.
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