Walmart pauses job offers to workers needing H-1B visas after $100,000 fee

America’s largest private employer, Walmart, is pausing job offers to foreign candidates in need of H-1B visas to work in the United States, according to reports from Bloomberg and CNN.

The move comes about a month after President Donald Trump introduced a $100,000 annual application fee for special visas that are widely used by technology companies to bring in foreign workers.

Walmart, which has a rapidly growing online marketplace similar to the one run by Amazon, currently employs more than 2,000 H-1B visa holders, according to government data obtained by USA Today.

“Walmart is committed to hiring and investing in the best talent to serve our customers, while remaining thoughtful about our H-1B hiring approach,” the mega-retailer told USA Today.

What is an

H-1B visa?

The H-1B visa program is reserved for people who are employed in specialty occupations, frequently in technology, such as software engineers, tech program managers and other IT professionals. The visas are approved for a period of three to six years.

India was the largest recipient of H-1B visas last year, with 71% of approved beneficiaries, according to government data. China was a distant second at 11.7%.

Amazon had more than 10,000 of the visas approved this year, while Microsoft and Meta each had more than 5,000 of the visas approved, according to the agency.