Walmart suspends H-1B visa job offers after Trump fee hike

Walmart The halt in hiring job candidates who need H-1B visas to work in the U.S. is an example of the ways the Trump administration’s immigration policies are shaping corporate strategy, according to a person familiar with the decision.

Walmart’s decision comes after President Donald Trump in September announced higher fees for visas that allow companies to temporarily hire skilled workers from other countries such as China and India. The Trump administration has said it will now require companies to pay a $100,000 fee for each new visa application. It was stated that the purpose of the decision was to protect the jobs of American workers and end visa abuse.

“Walmart is committed to hiring and investing in the best talent to serve our customers by remaining thoughtful about our approach to H-1B recruiting,” a Walmart spokesperson said in a statement.

Exceptions to the H-1B hiring pause may be possible in some cases, said a person who was not authorized to publicly discuss the decision.

H-1B visas, which Congress created in 1990, have been a way for companies to bring in skilled workers from other countries when they can’t find qualified applicants in the United States. It is frequently used to fill science, technology, engineering and mathematics positions.

The program has 65,000 visas annually, with an additional 20,000 visas available for foreign professionals with a master’s or doctoral degree from a U.S. institution, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. If demand is above the ceiling, the lottery system is used.

For the Trump administration, the high fee charged for H-1Bs is intended to be a deterrent to companies weighing whether to hire a foreign worker instead of an American. This fits with Trump’s broader goal of using trade policy and a crackdown on immigrants to force companies to invest in U.S. operations and hire U.S.-born workers.

Walmart is the nation’s largest private employer, with nearly 1.6 million employees in the country at the end of the last fiscal year, most of whom work in the company’s large stores and warehouses. But H-1B visas are generally used for a small portion of Walmart’s corporate ranks.

The retail giant’s corporate workforce is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, as well as major U.S. cities like the San Francisco Bay Area.

As of June 30, Walmart had 2,390 employees receiving H-1B visas, according to U.S. government data, making Walmart the ninth largest visa-granting employer in the United States. Microsoft ranks No. 1 with 5,189, followed by Meta, Facebook’s parent company.

However, the decision was met with reaction from some segments of the business world. Earlier this month, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed a lawsuit challenging the new H-1B visa fee.

Neil Bradley, the U.S. Chamber’s Chief Policy Officer, said in a press release that the fee “will make it cost-prohibitive for U.S. employers, particularly startups and small and medium-sized businesses, to take advantage of the H-1B program, which was created by Congress expressly to ensure that American businesses of all sizes have access to the global talent they need to grow their operations in the United States.”

Walmart’s policy change was: First reported by Bloomberg.