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H-1B Filing Trends in Major Financial Firms
Year-over-year change in H-1B petition filings for selected firms.
Primary Sources
Wall Street H-1B Petitions Fall After Trump's Visa Crackdown - Business ...
Wall Street H-1B filings are down at the largest firms following the Trump administration's visa crackdown, though they're up at Jane Fraser's Citi. Getty Images 2026-04-10T09:35:01.238Z Wall Street H-1B filings are down year-over-year following Trump's visa crackdown. While some large visa filers, like Goldman Sachs, are down year over year, others are up. Financial firms often use H-1B hires to boost their technical staff, but AI could complicate that. H-1B visa filings fell at major financial firms like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan last year, while other major firms, like Citi, increased their petitions compared to the same time the previous year. This is the first data available showing how the financial industry reacted to President Donald Trump's changes to the work visa program, which made new applications more expensive.The Department of Labor data shows that the financial firms that filed the most certified H-1B applications in the first quarter of fiscal year 2026 filed 10% less than they did in the same period the year before. The federal fiscal year's first quarter runs from October through December.Certified H-1B and similar visa applications are those that the Labor Department has reviewed to ensure that a prospective immigrant worker will be paid similarly to other workers in similar roles, and won't adversely affect employment for those workers.The named firms either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment. H-1B applications fell sharply in the tech industry during the same time period, with all major firms Business Insider analyzed seeing reductions except for Nvidia.Looking at 20 of the financial firms that are the biggest users of the program in the quarter, the firms filed 25% fewer than they did the previous year.JPMorgan Chase saw the biggest drop in filings, from 724 certified applications from October through December 2024 to 516 a year later, a nearly 29% decrease. The change in applications dropped it from the biggest financial firm user of the program in the first quarter of last fiscal year to the second biggest user in the same quarter of this fiscal year. The firm's H-1B filings appear to be largely focused on tech roles.The largest percentage decrease in the quarter came from Goldman Sachs, seeing a more than 60% drop from 256 filings to 101. The firm's remaining filings include a mix of front-office financial roles and technical roles.While these two financial titans had a decrease in filings, some...
Trump's H-1B Visa Changes Threaten America's Global Tech Talent ...
A $100,000 fee that replaced what had been a $2,000 to $5,000 petition cost immediately reshuffled how major tech companies approach global hiring. Certified H-1B applications at Amazon fell from 4,647 in the first quarter of fiscal 2025 to 3,057 a year later. Meta and Google each roughly halved their filings. Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Salesforce, and Tesla all recorded declines, according to Department of Labor data.The fee stems from a presidential proclamation signed September 19, 2025, titled "Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers," which took effect two days later. It applies only to new petitions for workers residing outside the United States, carving out renewals and F-1 status changes already in progress. That distinction split the program into two tracks: companies recruiting internationally now face a six-figure upfront payment, while those hiring graduates already on campus can still avoid it.A second overhaul compounded the disruption. The Department of Homeland Security finalized a wage-weighted lottery system on December 29, 2025, effective February 27, 2026, replacing the long-running random draw. Workers offered the highest prevailing wage now enter the lottery four times, giving them a 61 percent selection probability. Entry-level workers at the lowest wage tier enter only once, cutting their odds to 15 percent, a 48 percent drop from the old random lottery. The Consumer Technology Association warned in October 2025 that the new system would "disproportionately harm the F-1 pipeline," since recent graduates starting at Wage Level I face the steepest disadvantage of all.Together, the two changes drove overall H-1B registrations down 29.6 percent for fiscal 2026, from roughly 470,000 to approximately 344,000. Texas-based immigration attorney Jason Finkelman summarized the behavioral shift: "Companies are being more selective in who they sponsor."AI-generated illustrationThe administration has defended both changes as protections for American workers. Commerce Secretary Lutnick put the case plainly: "Train Americans. Stop bringing in people to take our jobs." The White House pointed to a company approved for 5,189 H-1B workers in fiscal 2025 while simultaneously laying off roughly 16,000 U.S. employees as evidence the program required reform.Economists warned the trade-off carries serious costs. Berenberg, the German investment bank, cut its U.S. growth forecast for 2025 from 2 percent to 1.5 percent after the September fee announ...
H-1B visa slowdown leaves tech competing for scarcer AI hires
Amazon filings fell 34.2% YoY, while Meta's and Google's dropped roughly 50%, per Business Insider. Companies began facing tighter scrutiny on every H-1B visa application in September, when the Trump administration made visa acquisitions more challenging with a $100,000 fee on new petitions and a new lottery structure to favor higher salaries.
H-1B Visa Vetting 2026: 221(g) Delays and New Rules
What H-1B Visa Applicants Should Expect Under Enhanced Vetting and 221 (g) H-1B applicants in 2026 face stricter social media vetting, a $100,000 fee for overseas filings, and a 40% chance of 221 (g) administrative processing delays.
