Do Banks Reserve $300k H1B Roles for Foreign Hires?

Major U.S. banks are not quietly filling $300,000-plus jobs with H-1B visa holders while shutting out U.S. workers. The latest sector data shows a different story: the bulk of H-1B roles at leading banks sit in technology and quantitative teams, not in classic high-paying finance jobs like investment banking coverage, trading desks, or senior management.

Public records and salary databases point to most bank H-1B roles paying in the $100,000–$200,000 range, with only a small share reaching $300,000 or more. Those higher-paying roles are concentrated in specialized engineering, algorithmic trading, and advanced research positions where the skills are very rare.

Where H-1B roles at major banks actually sit

Banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley remain among the top H-1B sponsors in finance. Their certified applications, however, cluster around titles like:

• Senior Software Engineer
• Staff Software Engineer
• Data Scientist
• Quantitative Researcher

Non-technical positions—sales managers, credit associates, or commercial real estate researchers—appear far less often and typically do not reach $300,000 compensation.

There is no public evidence of a systematic effort to reserve $300,000-plus roles for foreign workers while rejecting U.S. citizens or permanent residents with similar credentials.

Recent policy change and its significance

As of September 21, 2025, the U.S. government raised the H-1B filing fee for certain employers to $100,000 per application. This is a dramatic shift aimed at discouraging over-reliance on guest workers and pushing companies to hire domestically when they can.

• The increase is very recent, so its full effect is still unfolding.
• It already makes employers think harder about each H-1B petition, especially for roles that are not business critical.

Why banks sponsor H-1B workers

Banks explain H-1B sponsorship in simple terms: they need specialized skills to build modern platforms, secure complex systems, and run data-heavy models.

Typical use cases include:

• Rewiring legacy infrastructure (software engineers)
• Building risk and fraud systems (machine learning specialists)
• Designing and testing trading strategies (quants)

These are core technology and math roles inside financial institutions — not the “banker” jobs that make headlines.

Salary picture

Salary data supports this divide:

• Public H-1B wage records and job boards show that compensation above $300,000 exists but is unusual.
• High pay is most common in a handful of high-skill areas:
  • Advanced quant roles
  • Certain AI/ML engineering posts
  • A slice of algorithmic trading jobs
• Even in those areas, offers are not exclusive to H-1B workers; U.S. citizens and green card holders compete for them too.
• The typical H-1B salary for bank technologists sits comfortably below $300,000 and aligns with broader market pay.

Labor market context

This picture matches the current labor market in finance and technology:

• Banks compete with cloud platforms, consumer tech giants, and hedge funds for a small pool of top engineers and researchers.
• When a role demands niche skills—low-latency systems, probabilistic modeling, or scalable data pipelines—employers cast a global net, H-1B visas included.
• That is a far cry from the claim that banks refuse to offer these roles to U.S. workers.

Data and roles in focus

• Banks leading H-1B sponsorship in finance file most petitions for technology and quantitative titles.
• Classic front-office banking roles represent a small minority of filings, and those positions rarely land at $300,000+ compensation.
• The small slice of H-1B offers at or above $300,000 appears mainly in:
  • Quantitative research
  • Algorithmic trading
  • Specialized engineering

Public H-1B salary databases show most finance-sector H-1B roles fall in the $100,000–$200,000 band. This aligns with employer statements that these are hands-on engineering and data jobs essential to modern banking — not high-profile investment banking leadership.

Industry specialists add this point about career paths: even senior investment banking Vice Presidents often report that “exit” roles in corporate strategy or business development land closer to $250,000 than $300,000+. Those roles are highly competitive and not tied to any particular visa category.

Meanwhile, the rare $300,000+ packages are concentrated in elite technical and quant jobs requiring deep math, coding, and research skills, whether inside banks or at trading firms.

Policy shift and hiring impact

The fee increase to $100,000 per H-1B filing for certain employers signals a strong policy intent to favor U.S. hiring when possible. For banks and other large companies, two near-term effects are likely:

1. It raises the cost of filing speculative or non-critical H-1B petitions, nudging employers to reserve sponsorship for hard-to-fill roles.
2. It encourages more investment in training and internal mobility, so current staff can move into roles that might otherwise have drawn H-1B candidates.

The policy does not remove the H-1B option for roles tied to specialized skills. It makes the business case more urgent: employers will need to show why a hire is essential and why the skills are scarce.

• Advocates say this better aligns program use with the public goal: fill specialty jobs when local supply is thin.
• Critics worry it could slow hiring for needed roles and push some projects overseas.

Transparency and enforcement

H-1B applications are public records that include employer names, job titles, and wages. Those records are widely reviewed by journalists, researchers, and advocates.

Anyone can read the government’s main program page for rules, definitions, and employer obligations, including the “specialty occupation” standard and employer attestations. See the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services H-1B guidance for official details.

With wages and titles on the public record, watchdogs and reporters can spot patterns quickly. So far, those patterns show technology-heavy hiring rather than a quiet carve-out of elite front-office seats.

Practical implications for workers

Human questions for job seekers are practical: Where are the opportunities, and who gets them?

• A senior software engineer with distributed systems experience may find strong demand inside large banks building cloud-native platforms.
• A data scientist with credit risk modeling skills may field offers from both banks and fintechs.
• A research quant competing for algorithmic trading roles faces a global contest where employers care first about technical depth and track record.

None of these paths is exclusive to H-1B holders, but the H-1B visa helps employers recruit worldwide when they cannot hire locally.

For U.S. job seekers, the message is to stay close to the evolving technical core of finance. Skills in secure systems, data engineering, model validation, and production machine learning remain in demand.

For international candidates, the bar has risen. Employers will be choosier about which H-1B petitions they file and will expect candidates to bring niche skills that justify the cost.

Practical steps (for job seekers and employers)

• For U.S. candidates in finance:
  • Deepen technical skills: coding for data pipelines, system design, model governance.
  • Move into the roles where demand is strongest.
• For international candidates:
  • Focus on specialized areas: low-latency engineering, advanced ML, derivatives modeling.
  • Make the H-1B case compelling with niche expertise.
• For employers:
  • Document the business need and the skill gap clearly.
  • Be ready to show why a role cannot be filled domestically at market pay.

Outlook and conclusion

According to analysis by VisaVerge.com, the new fee structure is likely to reduce H-1B filings at the margin, especially for roles not central to a firm’s growth or risk agenda. Banks still need global talent for advanced engineering and quantitative work, but the days of wide, multi-role H-1B pipelines may be fading as compliance costs climb.

Compliance guardrails matter. Employers must attest that a role requires specialty knowledge and that no qualified U.S. worker is available. While no process is perfect, there is no systemic evidence in banking of $300,000+ H-1B jobs being held back from U.S. workers.

For families and communities, the debate turns on fairness:

• U.S. workers want clear proof employers are not sidestepping them.
• Immigrant workers want a fair chance to compete for advanced jobs without being painted as replacements.

The current data in finance suggests a middle ground: H-1B use is concentrated where skills are hardest to find — roles that blend finance and technology — while most traditional banking jobs remain on separate tracks.

The United States 🇺🇸 remains a magnet for top talent in both finance and technology. Banks will keep hiring for critical skill sets and will keep facing scrutiny over how they do it. With the new fee regime in place, expect:

• A sharper focus on essential, high-impact roles
• Fewer H-1B filings for positions that could be staffed locally
• Ongoing public review as wage and role data continue to be published and debated

As of October 2025, the bottom line holds: there is no credible evidence that banks are funneling $300,000+ jobs to H-1B workers while refusing to hire U.S. staff. The big numbers exist, but mainly in a narrow band of technical and quantitative roles. For the vast majority of H-1B hiring in banking, pay sits in line with market rates for engineers and data teams, and the purpose is to fill specific skill shortages — not to bypass Americans for marquee finance jobs.