Walmart pauses participation in H-1B visa program
by October 22, 2025 11:10 am 1,157 views
Following a monetary change to the process by the Trump administration, retail giant Walmart is reportedly halting job employment offers to applicants who require H-1B visas to work in higher-skilled jobs in the U.S.
President Donald Trump recently issued an order that raised the cost of an H-1B visa from about $5,000 to $100,000.
Bentonville-based Walmart is the nation’s largest private employer with more than 1.6 million employees. The retailer Walmart employs more than 2,300 H-1B workers who work in its corporate offices in Bentonville and San Francisco, according to government data.
The H-1B visa program was created in 1990 to allow U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in areas that require detailed knowledge, such as in technology, science, engineering and medicine. The foreign worker is “sponsored” by the employer and must work with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for approval of the visa.
The visas are valid for three years and can be extended up to six years. The program is capped at 65,000 visas per year, with 20,000 more for those with advanced degrees. Before the new fee structure, companies typically paid between $2,000 and $5,000 per application.
Walmart is one of several firms under recent scrutiny for its use of the H-1B visas in hiring foreign nationals. Tata Consultancy, with offices in Bentonville, also recently said it would no longer hire employees who require an H-1B visa to work in the country. Google, Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase, Deloitte, and Cognizant Technology also are among the companies with large numbers of H-1B visa employees.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has filed a lawsuit to challenge the new H-1B visa fee, saying “the fee is unlawful.”
“The fee overrides provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act that govern the H-1B program, including the requirement that fees be based on the costs incurred by the government in processing visas,” said Neil Bradley, chief policy officer at the U.S. Chamber. “It was created by the U.S. Congress to ensure American businesses of all sizes can access the global talent they need to grow their U.S. operations.”