(UNITED STATES) — Walmart cut its H-1B filings sharply in late 2025, submitting 312 certified H-1B visa applications in the final three months of the year as employers adjusted to new Trump administration rules that raised costs and tightened scrutiny.

That total marked a decline of more than 50% compared to previous years. The drop put Walmart among the large U.S. employers that pulled back on H-1B filings after a policy overhaul changed both the economics and the odds of the visa process.

The shift reached beyond one company. Across retail and technology, employers responded to changes implemented since September 2025 that made the program more expensive and difficult to use.

Those changes included a lottery tilted toward the highest-paid applicants and a $100,000 fee on new petitions for workers living abroad. The government said the measures aimed to curb fraud and encourage employers to hire Americans.

For Walmart, the decline stood out because the company remained an active H-1B user even as the regulatory environment tightened. Its 312 certified filings in Q4 2025 showed how quickly employers recalibrated once the new rules took hold.

The H-1B program has long served as a route for U.S. employers to hire foreign professionals for specialized jobs. Since September 2025, however, companies have faced a system with higher costs, more scrutiny and a different competitive structure in the lottery.

That combination changed filing decisions. A higher price for some petitions, especially the $100,000 fee for workers living abroad, raised the stakes for employers deciding whether to sponsor new candidates.

The pay-based lottery shift also changed strategy. By favoring the highest-paid applicants, the new rules added pressure on employers to rethink which roles they would sponsor and how aggressively they would pursue H-1B hiring.

Walmart’s pullback came even as some peer retailers held steadier. Target, Home Depot and Lowe’s maintained more consistent application numbers, though they also operated in the same regulatory climate.

That contrast suggested the response has not been uniform across the sector. Some employers reduced filings sharply, while others kept activity closer to prior levels despite the higher costs and added complexity.

Retail was not alone. The decline in H-1B filings extended across the technology sector, where Amazon, Google and Meta also saw reductions in applications during the same period.

Those declines showed that the policy changes reached far beyond traditional cost-conscious industries. Even companies with large hiring needs and established immigration programs cut back as the rules shifted.

Not every employer moved in the same direction. Nvidia increased filings amid the AI expansion, making it one of the firms that continued to push ahead while others retrenched.

That divergence highlighted how the new H-1B framework rewarded some business models more than others. Companies competing intensely for highly paid technical talent may have found the revised system easier to absorb than employers with broader or more varied staffing needs.

For Walmart, the numbers reflected a direct response to that new environment. A company that once filed at far higher levels submitted 312 certified applications in Q4 2025, underscoring how quickly a policy change can alter corporate immigration behavior.

The new rules also changed the way employers weighed overseas recruitment. A $100,000 fee on new petitions for workers living abroad created a new cost barrier for companies considering foreign-based candidates.

That fee, sometimes described in discussion of the new rules as a $100, 000 fee, stood out as one of the most visible changes in the system. Coupled with the revised lottery, it made H-1B filings a more expensive and selective exercise.

For policy watchers, the late-2025 data offered an early read on how employers reacted once the changes took effect. Walmart’s decline of more than 50% compared to previous years fit a broader pattern of reduced H-1B activity among major companies.

The effect was broad enough to cut across sectors that use the program differently. Retailers, tech giants and other large employers all faced the same basic question: whether the new costs and regulatory demands still justified filing at earlier levels.

Some clearly answered no. Walmart, Amazon, Google and Meta all reduced applications during the same period, even though they operate in different segments of the economy.

Others adjusted rather than retreated. Target, Home Depot and Lowe’s maintained more consistent numbers, while Nvidia moved the other way and increased filings as AI hiring expanded.

Those mixed outcomes pointed to a labor market sorting itself around new visa rules. Employers with urgent demand for highly paid talent could still participate, but the overall volume fell as the program became harder to use.

The Walmart figures also showed how immigration policy can ripple through ordinary corporate planning. H-1B filings are not only a legal or political issue; they shape how companies decide where to recruit, whom to sponsor and how much they are willing to spend.

In Walmart’s case, the change was stark and measurable. Its 312 certified H-1B filings in the final quarter of 2025 captured the scale of a retreat that followed the Trump administration’s visa shake-up.

More broadly, the numbers suggested that the H-1B system entering 2026 looked different from the one employers used in earlier years. With higher costs, tighter scrutiny and a lottery tilted toward top-paid workers, companies across industries were rewriting their hiring plans.