Thread: Walmart Pauses Job Offers for H-1B Visa Candidates Amid Trump’s $100K Fee Rule

Walmart pauses job offers for H-1B visa candidates amid Trump’s $100,000 fee rule, says ‘Thoughtful about our hiring approach’

Walmart Inc., the largest private employer in the United States, has paused job offers for candidates requiring H-1B visas following President Donald Trump’s new $100,000 visa application fee.

Written by Aditi

Updated: October 22, 2025 07:47 IST

Walmart Pulls Back on H-1B Jobs Amid Trump’s Costly New Visa Policy

Walmart Inc. has decided to pause job offers for H-1B visa holders, according to a new Bloomberg report. The company, which is also the largest private employer in the United States, took this step in response to the Trump administration’s newly imposed hefty fee on employers hiring H-1B candidates.

Under the new rule, companies are required to pay a $100,000 visa application fee for each H-1B candidate. The policy has already impacted the tech industry, which heavily relies on skilled workers from India and China. Walmart’s decision to pause hiring has largely affected the corporate-level positions, the sources said, according to Bloomberg.

According to US President Donald Trump, the new executive order is a measure to reform an “abused” visa program. For the unversed, the H-1B visa program is particularly used in the technology and retail sectors, which employ thousands of foreign workers under this system. Trump’s order is likely to hit professionals from India the most. In recent years, Indians have received over 70% of all H-1B visas, followed by China, which accounts for about 12%.

Walmart’s stance

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

According to US government data, Walmart employs around 2,390 H-1B visa holders, making it the largest user of the visa program in the retail sector. However, that number represents only a small section of its 1.6 million-strong US workforce.

While Walmart is one of the top employers of H-1B recipients among retail companies, it’s still far behind major tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Google, which rely heavily on the program.

In the first half of 2025, Amazon received over 10,000 H-1B approvals, while Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Google each hired over 4,000 H-1B visa holders, according to official data from via BBC.

The decision to halt H-1B hiring at Walmart, first reported by Bloomberg, shows how companies are reassessing recruitment strategies under Trump’s immigration crackdown. This is not the first company to do so. In the last few months, several small startups and businesses have already changed their stance toward H-1B holders, while larger corporations have remained silent on the issueFor the unversed, the $100,000 fee applies only to new H-1B filings. However, business leaders and economists warn that such a steep fee could discourage global talent from coming to the US, and the country might lose its competitiveness..

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, speaking when Trump signed the order, said companies will now have to weigh the cost of sponsorship. “The company needs to decide — is the person valuable enough to have a $100,000-a-year payment to the government, or should they hire an American instead?” he said.

https://www.financialexpress.com/bus...roach/4017669/

Trump’s H-1B visa crackdown forces Walmart to freeze foreign hiring

10/24/2025 // Ramon Tomey // 220 Views

Tags: american workers, big government, Big Tech, business, Collapse, corporations, Donald Trump, H-1B visa, hiring freeze, Immigration, immigration agenda, immigration reform, Kristi Noem, legal immigration, outrage, tech giants, tech workers, visa abuse, visa crackdown, Walmart, White House

• Walmart, one of the top employers of H-1B workers, suspends hiring under the program due to Trump's aggressive reforms, signaling a major shift against corporate exploitation of foreign labor.
• A new $100,000 application fee imposed by the Trump administration forces corporations to rethink replacing U.S. workers with lower-paid foreign labor, exposing decades of abuse by Big Tech and multinational firms.
• The administration mandates that H-1B visas now go only to the highest-skilled or highest-paid applicants, dismantling the cheap labor pipeline exploited by companies like Microsoft, Google and Amazon.
• While the U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposes the fee, critics argue the program has depressed wages and displaced American workers – many forced to train their foreign replacements.
• Trump's broader immigration agenda rejects corporate reliance on foreign labor, prioritizing American workers and national interests, with economists revealing systemic abuse (70 percent of visas go to Indian nationals in mid-level IT roles).

In a decisive move to protect American jobs from corporate outsourcing schemes, President Donald Trump's aggressive reforms to the H-1B visa program have prompted retail giant Walmart to pause hiring foreign workers – marking a pivotal shift in the battle against globalist labor exploitation.
The administration's new $100,000 application fee, announced in September, has effectively forced corporations to reconsider replacing U.S. employees with cheaper foreign labor. Trump's move exposes a decades-long betrayal of American workers by tech monopolies and multinational retailers.
Walmart, ranked among the top U.S. employers of H-1B workers with nearly 3,000 visa holders, confirmed this week that it has suspended hiring under the program. The company stated it remains "committed to hiring and investing in the best talent," but the abrupt freeze signals corporate panic over the administration's crackdown. Industry analysts predict other major firms will follow suit as the Department of Homeland Security prepares further enforcement measures.
The H-1B visa program was originally designed to fill specialized roles where qualified Americans were scarce. However, it has been systematically abused by corporations seeking to slash payroll costs over the years. Companies like Walmart, Microsoft, Google and Amazon – some of the largest sponsors of H-1B visas – have long exploited the system to displace skilled domestic workers with lower-paid foreign replacements, often from India and China.
The second Trump administration now mandates stricter H-1B oversight, requiring visas to be granted only to the highest-skilled or highest-paid applicants – effectively dismantling the cheap labor pipeline. But the backlash against H-1B abuse isn't new: For years, displaced American tech workers have testified about being forced to train their foreign replacements
James Fishback, CEO of the investment firm Azoria, echoed Trump's stance on the matter. "We've got qualified Americans all over this country," he remarked during a Fox Business interview on Wednesday, Oct. 22. "When Fortune 500 companies pass over U.S. citizens just to exploit cheap foreign labor, that's a violation of America's social contract."
H-1B visa abuse undercuts American workers

Critics of the visa program argue it has depressed wages in critical sectors like technology and logistics while enabling corporations to bypass fair labor practices. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has sued the administration over the $100,000 fee, claiming it unlawfully overrides existing immigration law.
Yet proponents of the reform counter that if companies cannot afford the fee, they were never hiring "the best and brightest" to begin with. "If you're saying $100,000 is too much for a skilled worker, then they're not that skilled," Fishback remarked.
The Trump administration's broader immigration agenda – restricting student visas, tightening birthright citizenship and prioritizing high-value investors – reflects a fundamental rejection of globalist labor arbitrage. Noem, in her capacity as homeland security secretary, now holds authority to waive the fee only in rare cases where a foreign worker's expertise is deemed vital to national interests and irreplaceable by American talent.
Economists aligned with corporate interests claim H-1B visas "complement" the labor market, but the data tells a different story. Over 70 percent of these visas go to Indian nationals, many funneled into mid-level IT roles that U.S. graduates could fill. Youth unemployment remains double the national average, reinforcing concerns that the program has stifled opportunities for young Americans.
BrightU.AI's Enoch engine points out that "H-1B visa applications should be tightened to protect American workers from being displaced by cheaper foreign labor and to ensure that employers prioritize hiring domestic talent over exploiting the visa system. The current lottery-based process creates unfair competition and prolonged hiring blackouts, harming both U.S. professionals and businesses seeking reliable, long-term employees."
The H-1B crackdown is more than a policy shift. It's a reckoning for corporations that have treated U.S. workers as disposable. With the administration unyielding and public scrutiny intensifying, the days of cheap labor exploitation may finally be numbered.
As Walmart's hiring freeze reverberates through corporate boardrooms, the message is clear. The era of outsourcing American prosperity is ending.
Watch this clip that discusses how President Trump's $100,000 fee for H-1B visas has impacted Indian tech workers.

This video is from the InfoWarSSideBand channel on Brighteon.com.
Sources include:
YourNews.com
FoxBusiness.com
Independent.co.uk
BrightU.ai
Brighteon.com

Trump’s H-1B visa crackdown forces Walmart to freeze foreign hiring – NaturalNews.com