H-1B Filings Drop Sharply at Walmart and Banks After Trump Visa Fees

For retailers, banks and specialized clinics competing for narrow talent pools, hiring just became far more expensive. The Trump administration's overhaul of the H-1B skilled-worker visa program has produced an immediate slowdown in applications from some of America's largest employers, even as overall demand still exhausted the annual cap of 85,000 visas.

The changes began in September 2025 with a one-time $100,000 fee on certain new visas for workers applying from outside the United States, according to a White House proclamation. Additional rules effective in February favor higher-paid positions in the lottery system, while the Labor Department has proposed raising minimum salaries for visa holders. A typical application previously cost companies about $10,000 including legal and administrative expenses, immigration lawyers told The New York Times. The fee does not apply uniformly: employers hiring international students or others already inside the country on different visas can avoid it.

Department of Labor data show Walmart submitted 312 certified H-1B applications in the final three months of 2025. That represents a drop of more than 50 percent from roughly 860 in the same period a year earlier. Goldman Sachs filings fell 60 percent to 101, while JPMorgan Chase's declined 29 percent to 516, according to Business Insider's review of the same dataset. Median base salaries in Walmart's applications rose to $150,000 from $144,000-$145,000 previously. Yet the picture is uneven. Citigroup's petitions increased nearly 20 percent, Barclays filings rose two-thirds and Morgan Stanley's grew more than 25 percent over the same quarter. Nationwide, H-1B registrations for fiscal year 2026 fell 27 percent to roughly 344,000 from the prior year, per USCIS figures reported by India Today.

Smaller organizations report steeper barriers. Sara McCabe, president of the Wayside Youth & Family Support Network in Massachusetts, said her special-education school can no longer afford the program and has turned away a dozen prospective students as a result. A nephrology practice in rural North Carolina told The Times it may take out a loan or abandon its search for a physician from India after a fee-waiver request was denied. Northern Light AR Gould Hospital in Maine paid the full fee to secure a German surgeon for a three-year vacancy, then offset the cost by delaying equipment purchases and building maintenance, according to its president. Rural hospitals and medical associations have lobbied intensely against the fee.

Administration officials have described the measures as targeted reforms to reduce exploitation, prevent wage undercutting and push companies to hire Americans first. The H-1B program has drawn criticism for decades over documented cases of abuse, though studies on its net economic effect remain divided. Big technology firms have been largely insulated because they often sponsor workers already present on student visas. Immigration lawyers report a "chilling effect" on smaller clients and IT consulting firms that recruit heavily overseas. Between September 2025 and mid-February 2026, only 85 payments of the new fee had been recorded in court documents tied to a legal challenge by employers and unions.

The data reflect Labor Department certifications, which ensure prevailing wages and no adverse effect on U.S. workers, rather than final visa approvals or lottery outcomes. Multiple applications can pertain to one worker, and full-year figures may shift with hiring cycles. The first quarter captured here preceded the March lottery, when most applications are typically filed. Uncertainty from repeated policy adjustments has prompted some corporations to reduce sponsorships even before the fee fully registered, lawyers said. At the same time, broader industry trends including layoffs in technology and the rise of generative AI have reduced demand for certain roles that once relied on H-1B talent.

The tension remains unresolved: whether higher barriers will meaningfully expand opportunities and wages for domestic workers, or simply leave critical vacancies unfilled in schools, hospitals and specialized finance roles that struggle to recruit locally. Demand still met the cap this year. How later quarters and smaller employers adapt will determine if the overhaul produces the labor-market rebalancing its architects intended.