- Wall Street banks cut H-1B filings by 10% in Q1 2026 amid rising costs and new visa rules.
- Goldman Sachs filings plummeted over 60%, while Citi and Barclays bucked the trend with significant increases.
- New policies prioritize high-wage candidates, pushing banks toward senior talent and automated AI solutions.
(WALL STREET, USA) — Wall Street banks cut certified H-1B Labor Condition Applications in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, though several large firms moved the other way, producing a split hiring picture across the industry as costs rose and new visa rules took effect.
Financial firms filed 10% fewer certified H-1B applications in FY2026 Q1, covering Oct-Dec 2025, than they did in the same quarter a year earlier. The drop came as President Trump’s immigration changes raised the price of a successful filing and shifted the lottery toward higher-paid workers.
Goldman Sachs posted one of the sharpest pullbacks. Its certified filings fell over 60%, dropping from 256 to 101, covering both front-office financial jobs and technical roles. JPMorgan also recorded a year-over-year decline, though the exact figure was not specified.
Other big banks increased filings. Citi rose nearly 20% from a year earlier, Barclays climbed nearly two-thirds, Morgan Stanley gained more than 25%, and Capital One edged up 4% while focusing on data science and machine learning positions.
The divergence marks a change from the years when large banks expanded their use of the visa program in tandem. By FY2017, eight major banks had grown H-1B applications by about 60% over five years to more than 7,000, led by JPMorgan with more than 2,000.
Current conditions look different. Banks are weighing a new $100,000 fee for each successful application, alongside rules effective February 27, 2026 that prioritize the highest of four wage levels in the lottery. That combination favors senior hires and raises the risk around entry-level and mid-level recruiting.
Those changes matter in an industry that has long used H-1B visas for technical and analytical work as much as for traditional finance jobs. Recent filings point to demand for quantitative analysts, software engineers, data scientists, financial analysts and risk model developers, with a median salary of $104K and jobs mostly based on-site in New York.
JPMorgan’s decline stands out partly because of its history. The bank had filed more than 2,000 applications in FY2017, mainly for technology and engineering roles, making it one of the most active banking sponsors in the program. Goldman’s slide from 256 to 101 shows how fast that appetite has cooled at some firms.
Citi, Barclays and Morgan Stanley show that the slowdown has not hit every employer in the same way. Their increases suggest some banks still want overseas talent despite the heavier costs and stricter selection rules, especially when roles combine financial expertise with technical skills.
Capital One’s filing pattern points in that direction. Its increase was modest at 4%, but the roles centered on data science and machine learning, including director-level data engineering and senior machine learning leads. That fits the new wage structure more comfortably than junior hiring does.
Active H-1B sponsors in banking still include some of the industry’s largest names: JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley. Foreign banks and adjacent financial firms remain active as well, including HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, UBS, Stripe, Robinhood and Chime.
Recent visa counts from related firms also show that demand has not disappeared across finance and fintech. Affirm recorded 76+ visas last year, Capital One had 321+, State Street had 157+, Truist had 126+, and PayPal had 729+.
The policy shift reaches beyond raw filing totals. The new lottery framework sorts applications by wage level, from Levels 1 through 4, and gives the strongest footing to senior, higher-paid candidates. Firms that once used the program to bring in younger engineers or analysts now face a steeper test if they continue that strategy.
Jill Bloom of Fragomen said companies may skip entry-level talent. In practice, that can push employers toward more experienced hires, offshoring or internal staffing changes, especially in technology teams that support trading, compliance, payments and risk systems.
Generative AI has added another pressure point. Banks are assessing whether some tech and white-collar work once routed through H-1B hiring can be automated or absorbed by smaller teams, a concern that has spread across corporate America and landed with particular force in finance, where software, data and analysis roles sit close to the core business.
The cooling in bank filings also lines up with broader labor-market weakness during 2025, including slower hiring and fewer openings at the entry level. That backdrop helps explain why some Wall Street banks have pulled back even as others continue to file for specialized workers they see as harder to replace.
Labor Condition Applications offer an early read on employer intent, but they do not measure final visa approvals or lottery outcomes. Employers can also file multiple applications tied to one worker, and the first-quarter figures remain preliminary, making them a signal of strategy rather than a final count of who will arrive under the H-1B program.
Even with that caution, the quarter shows a banking sector recalibrating. Some Wall Street banks are shrinking their H-1B plans sharply, others are still adding filings, and the jobs that remain in demand skew toward higher-paid specialists in data, engineering and finance rather than the broad-based growth that once drove the industry’s visa use.
